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POULTRY
FOR
THE TABLE AND MARKET
VERSUS
FANCY FOWLS.
WITH AN EXPOSITION OF THE
FALLACIES OF POULTRY FARMING.
"AS THE RESULT OF MY EXPERIENCE OF NEARLY HALF A CENTURY, I DO NOT
HESITATE TO AFFIRM THAT NO ONE BREED OF FOWLS HAS BEEN TAKEN IN HAND
BY THE FANCIER, THAT HAS NOT BEEN SERIOUSLY DEPRECIATED AS A USEFUL
VARIETY OF POULTRY."— Vide page 1.
THE SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED.
W. B. TEGETMEIER, F.Z.S.,
Author of "Profitable Poultry;" "The Poultry Book;" "Poultry," in the Encyclopaedia
Bi itannica; " The Modern Breeds of Poultry," in " The Ibis," 1890; " Farm Poultry,"
in the Journals of Royal Agricultural Society, 1890, the Bath and West of
England Society, amd the Yorkshire Agricultural Society. Editor of
tlie Poultry Department of " The Field;" Davis Lecturer to
the Zoological Society; Lecturer to the Agricultural
Institute, South Kensington Museum;
One of the Judges at the Royal Agricultural, Bath and West of England, the
Birmingham, Crystal Palaee, Dairy Show, and other Exhibitions.
London :
HORACE COX,
THE FIELD" OFFICE, BREAM'S BUILDINGS, E.C.
1893.
[All rights reserved.
LONDON :
TRINTED BT HORACE COX, BREAM'S BUILDINGS, E.C.
PREFACE.
In publishing this book I have had but one object in view,
and that is, the increase of the quality of marketable poultry,
and the quantity of eggs produced in this country. I wish it
to be distinctly understood that this work has not been
written in opposition to the keeping of ornamental and fancy
poultry as such. I am not opposed to the holding of poultry
shows by those who are pleased with the cultivation of
ornamental fowls ; nor am I opposed to the holding of flower
shows ; but I regard poultry shows, as ordinarily conducted,
to have no more to do with the produce of marketable and
useful poultry than flower shows have to do with garden
or agricultural produce. I think it greatly to be lamented
that at our large agricultural exhibitions really useful poultry
should have been entirely ignored in favour of feather varieties.
I am not sanguine enough to suppose that any variety of
poultry can be kept to produce the large amount of chickens
and eggs that are required for consumption in this country.
The production of poultry is the business of the small farmer
and small landed proprietor. As many birds can be kept
around the homestead of a farm of thirty or fifty acres,
as can be maintained about one of 500 or 1000. To the
small farmer the return of the poultry is of much more
PREFACE.
importance than it is to the larger landed proprietor ; and
it is with a view of showing that ornamental poultry is not
adapted to the use of the breeder for the market that these
chapters have been written.
In order to prevent unnecessary correspondence, I may
state that I cannot undertake, either directly or indirectly,
to procure birds or eggs for my readers, or to accept the
responsibility of recommending vendors.
W. B. Tegetmeier.
North Finchlet,
January, 1892.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
In issuing the second edition of this work, I cannot refrain
from expressing the satisfaction its extremely favourable
reception has afforded me. I have endeavoured to make it
more worthy of the manner in which it has been received
by the addition of new chapters on Improving Farm Poultry
and on Trussing Fowls for the Market ; and additional illus-
trations have been supplied wherever it was thought desirable.
March, 1893.
CONTENTS.
Chapter I.
Introductory page 1
Chapter II.
Game Fowls 7
Chapter III.
Dorkings 10
Chapter IV.
Cochins 13
Chapter V.
Brahmas 16
Chapter VI.
Langshans, Plymouth Rocks, and Wyandottes 19
Chapter VII.
Malays, Indian Game, and Azeei 23
Chapter VIII.
French Table Breeds — Houdans, Crevecceur, and La Fleche... 26
Chapter IX.
Non- sitting Varieties — Spanish, Minorcas, Andalusian, and
Leghorn 31
Chapter X.
Non-sitting and other Varieties 38
Chapter XL
Improvin g Farm Poultry 42
Chapter XII.
Housing 45
vi CONTENTS.
Chapter XIII.
Feeding page 48
Chapter XIV.
Hatching SI
Chapter XV.
Rearing the Chicken 57
Chapter XVI.
Breeding for the Market. — Eggs 64
Chapter XVII.
Breeding for the Market. — Chickens 68
Chapter XVIII.
Fattening 76
Chapter XIX.
Showing and Trussing 82
Chapter XX.
Turkeys and Guinea Fowl 88
Chapter XXI.
Ducks 92
Chapter XXII.
Geese 97
Chapter XXIII.
Diseases of Poultry 100
Chapter XXIV.
Fall acies of Poultry Farming 106
Chapter XXV.
Fowls in Small Runs 119
Chapter XXVI.
Caponising 123
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Page
Game Fowls, Ancient and Modern Frontispiece
Bewick's Farm Yard Fowl 4
Braquemond's Farm Yard Fowl
Cochins
Brahmas
24
Indian Game Hen
27
Hondans
ns 28
Crevecoeur
LaFleche Cock 29
QA
La Fleche Hen
Spanish
T , 36
Leghorns
53
Testing Eggs
Fatting Coop
79
Cramming Machine
Dead Fowl for Show 83
QQ
Fowl Trussed for Roasting
Fowl Trussed for Boiling 86
QQ
Movable Poultry House
102
Orpington Poultry Disease
"1 f)K
Scurf y Leg Farasite
PUBLICATIONS BY W. B. TEGETIEIER, F.Z.S.
Member of the British Ornithologists' Union.
PROFITABLE POULTRY (Darton). 1853. Out of print.
REARING AND FATTENING MARKET AND TABLE POULTRY.
1855. Out of print.
THE POULTRY BOOK, £1 Is- (Routledge and Sons.) Out of date, not
having been revised since 1873.
BREEDING FOR COLOUR AND THE PHYSIOLOGY OF BREED-
ING. By W. B. TEGETMEIER and W. W. BOULTON, M.R.C.S.
(Ward, Beverley.) 1873. Out of print.
THE PRINCIPAL MODERN BREEDS OF DOMESTIC FOWL.
Private reprint from The Ibis, 1890.
POULTRY, ENCYCLOP. BRITANNICA. Last Edition.
PIGEONS (Boutledge and Sons). 1870. Out of date, not having been revised
since its publication.
UTILIZATION OF PIGEONS FOR MILITARY PURPOSES. 1877.
Eoyal Engineers' Institute, Chatham. Printed for private circulation.
THE HOMING PIGEON (Routledge and Sons). 1872. Out of print.
THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE CRANES. By w. B.
TEGETMEIER and E. BLYTH. 1881.
PALLAS SAND GROUSE. 1888. Out of print.
PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. 2nd Edition, 1883.
15s. (Horace Cox.)
ON THE CONVOLUTIONS OF THE TRACHEA IN BIRDS.
Privately printed, 1881.
MANUAL OF DOMESTIC ECONOMY, WITH HINTS ON
DOMESTIC MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 12th Edition, Is. 6d.
(Hamilton, Adams, and Co.)
HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT. Written at the request of the School
Board for London. 60th thousand. Is. (Macmillan and Co., London.)
%
POULTRY
FOR THE TABLE AND MARKET
VERSUS
FANCY AND EXHIBITION
FOWLS.
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY.
The subject of poultry, considered as profitable farm stock, has
been a matter of interest with me for a very long period Nearly
forty years ago I published a work on profitable, as distinguished
from fancy or ornamental poultry, which was exceedingly well
received. For more than the third of a century I have been engaged
in awarding prizes at the poultry shows, held by agricultural and
other societies, during which time I have never failed to bear
in mind the importance of poultry as yielding a valuable supplv
of food, in the form of chickens and eggs, but year after year
I have seen, with regret, the steadily increasing tendency of
poultry shows to encourage mere fancy varieties, and to ignore
altogether the profitable value of the birds exhibited. This has
gone on to such an extent, that I do not hesitate to affirm, as
the result of my experience of hah0 a century, that no one breed
of fowls has been taken in hand by the fancier that has not
been seriously depreciated as a useful variety of poultry. At
shows, as at present conducted, fancy points only have to be
considered by the judges. The result is that the economic value
of many breeds has been entirely lost. For example, Spanish,
froni being abundant producers of large white eggs, have become
very indifferent layers, some of the most notorious prize-winners
being practically sterile. Cochins, that were formerly the best
B
TABLE AXD MARKET POULTRY
layers of any sitting1 varieties, are now amongst the worst.
Dorkings, that formerly supplied the best fowls for the London
markets, are now bred as show birds, and are not equal to the
cross-bred Surrey fowls, that are chiefly valued by the higglers
and the feeders. The Game fowls, that were formerly bred for
the cockpit, and for their value as table fowl, are now elongated
out of all knowledge, and look more like the " stilt birds," or
waders, of the ornithologist, than a variety of poultry fitted for
any practical use.
Nor has the depreciative effect of competitive shows beeu
confined to fowls ; it influences to a greater or less degree all
animals that are exhibited iu conrpetition. At dog shows the
vai'ious breeds are showu exclusively for fancy points, which have
no reference whatever to the utility of the animals from a practical
point or view. A prize greyhound, for example, is not an animal
that would figure at a coursing meeting, and Fullerton, the winner
of four "Waterloo Cups, would be passed without a commeudation
by the judges at a dog show, were they ignorant of his unexampled
performances. For example, no less an authority than the editor
of the Kennel Gazette, the recognised organ of the Kennel Club,
after speaking of the evil effects of the present show system on
<>ther breeds, writes, in July, 1890 : " Turn to the sheep dogs.
How many collies of the present day who have won prizes could
clear a high hurdle, or scamper over the backs of a flock of sheep
to turn it ': "
In the case of pigs, useful varieties, such as the Berkshire,
have been bred so " dish-faced," in accordance with the require-
ments of the fancy, that they have lost their profitable character,
and are now no longer in favour with the farmer who breeds for
the pig market ; consequently, he has to fall back upon the
Tamwortb and other coarser varieties, in order to make his pigs
pay their expenses. The same is the case with cattle, the
enormous sums of money given in premiums not going to the
great body of agriculturists, but into the hands of a few, who
breed solely in order to win prizes at the shows.
Some years since, the late secretary of the Boyal Agricultural
Society, Mr. H. M. Jenkins, stated that the present show system
was merely the offering of enormous sums of money to be
scrambled for by a very few exhibitors. Mr. C. T. Dyke Ackland
has indorsed the opinion, and has shown conclusively that the
large sums of money offered go into the hands of a very small
INTRODUCTORY. 3
section of the exhibitors. He has published a summary of the
prizes awarded for eleven years at the principal shows, from which
it appears that of the 17,2167. given as prizes to cattle, sheep,
and -pigs, no less than 93917., or considerably more than one half
of the total sum offered went into the pockets of sixty-two
exhibitors.
Believing as I do that the value of poultry as a source of food
would be largely increased by a different method of procedure, I
am induced to publish the present work. It is with considerable
regret that I find myself opposed to those poultry keepers
with whom I have acted so long, but my conviction as to the
inutility of fancy fowls as profitable poultry leaves me no alternative.
I have no objection to fancy poultry considered as such. A poultry
keeper has every right to breed ornamental fowls up to any pattern
that he thinks fit. I am perfectly conscious of the fact that the
breeding of fancy poultry is a source of great amusement and
interest . to large numbers of people ; it affords them pleasant
occupation, and is attended with a certain result. What I object
to is that fancy poultry should, in this country at least, take the
place of useful birds that are fitted to supply the markets with
poultry and eggs. At present, the aim of the poultry fancier and
exhibitor is not to breed fowls for any useful purpose, but to
produce them in accordance with the requirements of the fancier,
in order to win prizes, so as to sell the birds at enormous prices as
winners, which are likely to produce others in their turn.
The aim of the fancier always is, as was remarked by Darwin, to
go into extremes. He has not even a standard of beauty which he
regards as final. The greater the extent to which he can make the
specimens he produces excel others in fancy points, is the object
at which he aims ; consequently hideous monstrosities are not
unfrequently produced and exhibited, the only advantage of
which, from a scientific or practical point of view, is to prove the
extent to which living organisms are variable under the influence
of artificial as opposed to natural selection. Cochins aie one mass
of useless feather, Game hens stand a foot or more from the
ground ; Houdans, Oevecceurs, and Polish are bred with tufts so
large that they « an scarcely see to feed ; and so on, more or less,
with every variety.
In the present work I propose to compare fowls as they were
when regarded as useful producers of meat and eggs for the
table with their present condition, after having been developed
b 2
TABLE AND MARKET POULTRY.
by the aid of the fancier. The following engraving of a farmyard
fowl in the early part of the present century is an exact reproduc-
tion of a drawing by the celebrated Bewick, whose marvellous
accuracy in delineation of animals is well known. It shows a
fine-boned, short-legged, full-chested bird of great value as a
table fowl — one that is in strong contrast to the coarse- boned,
narrow-chested, feather-legged mongrels that have populated too
many of our own farmyards since the introduction of Cochins and
0 ^%^x isi*-
Farmyard Fowl of 1800. Drawn and Engraved by Bewick.
Bi'ahmas into this country, the worthless character of which is
shown in the admirable drawing by Braquemond, reproduced
at the end of this chapter. I wish to show that for agricultural
and economical pvirposes, the modern fancy breeds are useless, as
contrasted with the older varieties. I consider it is absolutely
necessary that such views should be set forth, for at the present
INTRODUCTORY.
time our agricultural societies are doing what I conceive to be
considerable injury by giving prizes for useless birds, and ignoring,
at least to a very great extent, the breeds that would be of benefit
to the farmer and to the nation at large.
In a recent number of the Journal of the Royal Agricultural
Society, it was stated that " The main object of the society in
offering prizes for poultry is to encourage agriculturists to devote
greater attention to an industry which fits very well with ordinary
farm operations, and is often, under skilful management, a source
of conside table profit." In the prize list of the Plymouth show,
which was held the same year, there were eight classes for table
poultry (fowls and ducks), the prizes offered being 28Z., out of a
poultry prize list of 2751., which sum was devoted almost exclu-
sively to fancy poultry, and was offei*ed as the reward of those who
could breed the prettiest feathers and largest combs, without the
slightest reference to the useful qualities of the birds. 141. was
offered for the longest foot-feathers and the greatest amount of
fluff in Cochins — useless birds to the farmer ; an equal amount to
laced feathers in Wyandottes, poultry valueless as market fowls;
and so on throughout the entire prize list ; whilst the Surrey and
Sussex fowls, which constitute nine-tenths of the very best and
most remunerative birds coming to the London market, were
absolutely excluded from competition.
In the same number of the Journal, one of the judges in report-
ing the society's show of fancy and feathered poultry wrote : " Out
of every ten pure-bred chickens successfully reared, only one is
suitable for a ' fanciers' ' exhibition, whilst the remainder are
exclusively and admirably adapted for the market and the table ! "
That the ridiculous statement that fancy poultry are admirably
adapted for the market should have appeared in the Journal of
the Royal Agricultural Society is a circumstance much to be
regretted.
The exhibition of dead fancy poultry was tried at the Dairy
Show, and the miserable carcases of the dead Wyandottes and
other fancy breeds that were exhibited put a stop to the repetition
of the experiment. If the Council of the Royal Agricultural
Society desire to know what birds have any market value, let them
inquire of the proprietors of any poultry fattening establishment
where the chickens are bought for the purpose of being prepared
for the London market ; or let them go to any good West-end
poulterer, such as Bellamy, Baily, or Fisher, and ask them their
6
TABLE AND MARKET POULTRY.
opinion of "fanciers'" fowls, as "exclusively and admirably
adapted for the table," and the answers they will receive will tend
to convince them that the publication of such statements in their
Journal is exceedingly undesirable.
In the following chapters I shall, in the first instance, consider
the most important breeds of fowls, not merely as they formerly
existed, but also as they now are, after having been bred for fancy
points, and then proceed to treat of the management of profitable,
agricultural, and market stock, not from a fancier's, but from a
productive point of view, taking up successively the subjects of
housing, feeding, hatching (by hens, turkeys, and incubators),
rearing the chicken, cross breeding for the production of eggs and
chicken, fattening, killing, the causes of the failure of poultry
farming, and the profitable management of turkeys, ducks, and
geese for the table and market.
Farmyard Fowl of 1890, Drawn by Braquemond.
CHAPTER II.
GAME FOWLS.
The alteration which has been effected in the various breeds of
fowls within the last twenty-five years, during which time fancy
shows have been in the ascendant, has been in no case more evident
than in the Game breed. Formerly, when Game fowl were bred
for the cockpit, what was required was a close-feathered, vigorous
bird, possessed of great strength of leg and wing, the latter
necessitating the presence of large fleshy pectoral muscles, which
gave plumpness to the breast ; together with the absence of any-
thing which could be regarded as useless offal, such as super-
abundant feathers or comb. As there was no especial point to be
exaggerated in Game fowls, they remained for some considerable
time unaltered by the competitive shows ; but at last the fashion
turned strongly in favour of what were termed " reachy " birds,
with long necks and limbs, with the plumage reduced to the most
scanty proportions. The result may be seen in the present race of
show Game, in which the elongation of the neck, limbs, and even
body is carried to a most extraordinary degree. Hens may now be
seen in the show pens standing with the keel of the breastbone
raised 12in. from the ground, and with necks correspondingly
elongated. The tail feathers are reduced to the smallest possible
proportions, a cock having no chance of success unless they are, in
the terms of the fancier, " whip-like."
Formerlv Game hens were characterised by carrying the tad
feathers in a somewhat fan-like form; now these are so small, and
held so tightly together, that that characteristic has entirely dis-
appeared. It is needless to say that these alterations can only have
been effected by the loss of plumpness, and of the useful character
of the birds. The modern Game fowls are of little value on the
table. They have lost the character of good mothers which they
formerly possessed, have become delicate and difficult to rear, and
are despised by the cockers who breed fowls for practical purposes.
S TABLE AND MARKET POULTRY.
When writing of the English Game fowl a quarter of a century
ago, I stated that their superiority had been entirely due to the
practice of cock-fighting, which was extensively indulged in by all
classes until a comparatively recent legal enactment rendered its
practice punishable with heavy pecuniary penalties.
The practice of cock-fighting may be regarded as one which
carries out under man's supervision the principle of action which
has been so ably described by Darwin and Herbert Spencer as
" the survival of the fittest in the struggle for life." Those cocks
which have proved the strongest, most active, and courageous, and
have stricken down their antagonists in the pit, have been pre-
served by man as the progenitors of their kind. This process of
selection had been carried on for a long series of generations, with
the ultimate result that the English Game fowl was unequalled in
form, and was universally regarded as the highest type of gallina-
ceous beauty.
Since the era of competitive shows all this has been changed.
What Game fowl once were and what they now are may be seen
by reference to the illustrations of ancient and modern game fowh
The drawings show a young cock of the modern show type,
belonging to Captain Heaton (reproduced by permission from
The Stock Keeper), as contrasted with a muscular full-bodied bird
as bred for the cockpit in the olden time. I have purposely
chosen to reproduce the latter as trimmed and heeled for fighting,
as the full-bodied muscular character of the old breed is more
apparent. It is needless to say that the exhibition Game fowl is of
no use to the farmer, being unproductive, delicate, ill-adapted to
the table, and useless for the purpose of crossing to give plumpness-
to table birds. The delicacy of the exhibition breed of Game
fowls, as compared with the old vigorous strain, was forcibly
illustrated in an account published in the Field, March 26, 1892,
by Mr. Fletcher Moss, who stated that two years since he borrowed
a Lord Derby cock from a man who kept the breed for fighting
purposes. He put this cock to those of his hens that approximated
most closely to the old sort ; that is to say, were shorter legged
than the ordinary black-red hens. With another set of hens,
sisters to the first lot, he put a prize modern gamecock, and
compared the chickens from the two pens. They certainly
surprised him, as there was no compai-ison in the health or
hardihood of the chickens from the two cocks ; those bred from
the fighting cock feathered quickly and lived, those from the
GAME FOWLS. 9
show bird feathered slowly and died. In one hatch a young
hen had nine chickens from the exhibition strain and one from
the fighting bird ; they were often in wet grass, and the latter
lived, while the former all died. Writing in February, 1893, after
another year's experience, Mr. Fletcher Moss, when publishing his
poultry balance sheet in the Field of Feb. 11, says that he has
kept during the past year both old-fashioned and exhibition Game.
The former, he says, are certainly the most productive and profit-
aide, for the old fighters must have had health and strength — very
desirable in all animals. The modern Game he describes as " Only
fit for show, languid swells in fact, without much hardihood."
If the old English Game fowl — not the mongrels often so
called and exhibited at some of our shows where classes for this
variety exist — can be obtained, it will be found of great use as a
cross, but it must be sought for, not in the show yards, but in
some of those districts where the illegal practice of cock-fighting
is still pursued " under the rose."
In making this statement I am not speaking without warrant.
It is quite true that I have never crossed the modern show Game
with Dorking, as I have the old-fashioned breed, but my friend
Mr Parlett, a well-known successful Dorking breeder, tried the
experiment, obtaining a bird for the purpose from one of the most
successful, if not the most successful, exhibitor of modern Game
fowls, whose birds are reared under every advantage of free range
and healthy appliances. Of the offspring thus obtained Mr Par-
lett sent me specimens, in order to test on the table. I preferred
keeping them in order to see what they would be when mature,
and I can only say that in size and plumpness they are very
inferior to such birds as would be produced by Mr Parlett's
excellent Dorking hens if these were run with an old-fashioned
Game cock.
CHAPTER III.
DORKINGS.
The Dorking may be regarded as pre-eminently the English fowl,
which, in conjunction with the large Surrey and Sussex fowls, has
for many years supplied the best specimens of table poultry for the
London markets. Before the era of competitive shows, the
speckled and cuckoo Dorkings were those most appreciated by tin-
higglers, who bought them for the purpose of fattening ; but with
the poultry exhibitions came the desire for increased size and
uniformity of marking. The first was effected mainly by the
action of Mr John Douglas, then poultry keeper to the late Duke
of [Newcastle, who crossed the Dorkings with a large grey Kulni or
Malay cock obtained from the Zoological Gardens, and subse-
quently, by great attention to the selection of brood stock.
succeeded in perpetuating the required characteristics of comb and
feather. It was in this way that the present race of exhibition
Dorkings was made. It is hardly necessary to say that the desired
size was accompanied by a degree of coarseness, loss of table
qualities, and by greatly increased size of bone, particularly in the
shanks. This latter was so pronounced that it even came to be
looked upon as a merit, and Dorking exhibitors used to expatiate
on the excellence of their birds, concluding by directing attention
to their legs, and Baying, "There's bone!" But bone, unfortu-
nately, is not eatable, and can only be produced at a certain cost of
nutriment, which had better be expended in forming flesh. I have
always failed to see the merit of coarse bones in a table fowl, regard-
ing them with no greater favour than a breeder would coarse legs
in a Southdown. That the opinion now expressed is not a new
one as far as I am concerned, may be inferred from the fact that a
quarter of a century ago, when writing in " The Poultry Book," I
stated that '•the alteration effected by Mr Douglas has influenced
nearly the whole stock of exhibition birds in Great Britain. In
place of the very compact, short-legged, fine-boned breed of twenty
DOB KINGS. 1 1
years ago, characterised generally by a speckled plumage, we now
have exhibited a much larger breed, the hens being generally very
dark in colour. . . . The advantages gained by the cross have
been great increase of size and beauty of plumage. On the other
hand, the original Dorking breeders maintain, with great show of
justice, that the old strain are much superior as table fowl,
being compacter in form, with shorter limbs and less bone."
At the present time white Dorkings are greatly in favour as exhibi-
tion birds, but, as was remarked by as practical an authority as Mr
John Baily some thirty years ago, " white fowls have a tendency
to yellowness in the fat, which renders them less desirable as
market poultry." One of the best breeds of Dorkings has had its
merits overlooked in the present rage for fancy poultry. It is
that known as the Blue or Cuckoo Dorking, which was formerly
regarded as one of the best and earliest to fatten, but as it did
not reach the size of the modern Exhibition Dorking, and as it was
difficult to breed free from white feathers in the tail of the cocks
and a tinge of yellowness in the hackles, in spite of their economical
merits, they went out of fashion. They are still, however, to be
found in many of the districts in Sussex, where the fowls are
bred for the higglers. Mr. Burnell, one of the most successful
Dorking breeders and exhibitors, acknowledged their merits in his
little treatise on the Exhibition Dorking, saying : "The hens were
really wondei*ful layers, and though for the table they did not
reach the size of the Dark Dorking, their full breasts and juicy
flesh, combined with their early maturity, rendered them most
acceptable in the larder. They are decidedly," he remarks, " a
hardy breed."
The injurious influence of fancy shows has even extended to this
variety. The editor of the Stock Keeper, writing on July 29, 1892,
regrets the fact that to produce exhibition Cuckoo Dorkings two
breeding pens are necessary, one to produce cockerels and the other
pullets, as is the case with show Brahmas, Harnburgs, &c. He
says, if Cuckoo Dorkings are once more to make their mark, they
must be managed so as to produce cockerels and pullets from the
same parents.
It is needless to say that the extra toe, which is supposed to
be an indispensable characteristic of the true Dorking, is a
considerable drawback from a utilitarian p< hit of view. It is
an unquestionable deformity, the presence of which often leads to
lameness and bumble foot. Although the modei'n show Dorkimr
12 TABLE AND MARKET POULTRY.
is not adapted to the requirements of the producer of fowls for the
table, it may, by judicious crossing, lead to the production of cross
breeds of very considerable value. What is required as a market
fowl is increased plumpness of breast, greater hardihood of consti-
tution, and the power of producing a larger number of eggs than
it does at present. All these requirements, conjoined with a
less amount of useless offal, may be obtained by crossing the
birds judiciously. There is a breed of Dorking of somewhat
smaller size, known as silver-greys, which were originally called
Lord Hill's Dorkings, having been produced many years ago by
that nobleman by crossing with the Duckwing Game. They have
been so closely bred for feather that they have lost the hardihood
and plumpness they originally derived from the Game.
In confirmation of the preceding statements respecting the
inferiority of the present show Dorking to the birds that it has
supplanted, I beg leave to quote the following passages from an
article by one of the best known and most successful exhibitors of
the breed, Mr. 0. E. Cresswell. who wrote as follows :
'• The Dorking was formerly a more uniformly square-shaped,
short-legged, round, deep-breasted, and white-footed bird than it
now is. When exhibitions became frequent breeders found that
judges of poultry gave great weight to size and weight in Dorkings ;
indeed, at the Birmingham Show they used to weigh them, and in
spite of the well-known rule about -purity of breed, &c.,' being
rather taken into account ' than mere weight,' seemed to ignore
many of the old points. Every tyro in breeding knows that a first
cross gives increased size and weight ; naturally, therefore, breeders
—some through utter ignorance of the effects of crossing and of
the years it may take to eradicate a taint ; others from mere
selfishness, caring alone for their own present success — began to
try crosses. Their birds so produced won prizes, were bought as
prize birds, and spread far over the country ; hence long legs, dark
feet, want of breast, and many defects which have long been the
trouble of the real Dorking fancier." — Journal of Horticulture,
Aug. 25. 1881.
- -~T
■
CHAPTER IV.
COCHINS.
The introduction of Cochins into England may be regarded as
having given the first strong impulse to the now prevalent pursuit
■of poultry keeping. Previous to that time fowls were kept
mainly for profit ; but when the Cochins, the first specimens of
which were exhibited about the year 1850, were first imported from
Shanghai, their singular form attracted the taste of the public,
and a veritable " Cochin mania " was the result.
The birds as first introduced differed from the previously known
breeds of poultry in several characteristics. The feathers of the
wings and tails were short, and the birds hardly capable of flight,
being readily confined by a 3ft. or 4ft. fence. The feathers of the
thighs and those on the lower part of the back were more abundant
and fluffy than in any of the breeds known. The crow of the cock
was much deeper in tone than that of the male of the ordinary
varieties. There were certain peculiarities of structure, such as a
deep groove in the frontal bone, which leads me to suspect that
these fowls might not have had the same origin as our ordinary
breeds. The eggs were all a deep buff colour, and the hens were
the most prolific of any varieties that were prone to incubate ; in
fact, when first introduced, they were absurdly credited with the
power of laying two or even three eggs per day. I have now lying
before me the record of the laying of four young Cochin hens, bred
from the best of the imported birds; these in 1855 laid 570 eggs,
and another set of four kept during the following year, 1856, under
the same most favourable circumstances, laid 599 eggs, showing an
average of 146 eggs per annum for each fowl. As each of these
hens was allowed to rear one brood, and as one half of the eggs
wei'e produced during the six winter months, the result must be
regarded as much more satisfactory than any obtained from show
Cochins at the present time, whose food is employed in the
production of useless feathering.
14 TABLE AND MARKET POULTRY.
As useful fowls, the strong points of Cochins on their
first introduction were the early laying of the pullets, which
produced their eggs in winter irrespective of temperature ; the
hardihood of the chickens ; the ease with which they could be kept
within bounds ; and their rapid growth to a large size. These
advantages led to their value being greatly over-estimated. A
great amount of nonsense was written about them, and it was even
stated by one well-known writer that a Cochin hen would be as
valuable to a cottager as an ewe lamb. But the drawbacks to the
a-dvantages they possess are most decided. Their small wings
and incapacity for flight are accompanied by a very Blight develop-
ment of the pectoral muscles ; consequently there is little meat
upon the breast, aud when dressed the keel of the bone is prominent
and ugly. It is true they make up, in the amount of flesh on the
legs, what is wanting on the breast ; but it is no recommendation to
a table fowl to develop largely the inferior portions to the detriment
of the finer parts. In the improved breeds of cattle the best joints
are developed and the inferior lessened in size ; there is small bone
and very little offal. The same characteristics should distingiiish
a table fowl— it should be as nearly as possible all breast, with short
limbs and fine bones. Again, the coarseness and yellowness of the
skin and fat is a serious drawback to the saleable value of Cochins,
and unfortunately they accumulate large quantities of fat internally,
where it is useless, and scarcely fatten on the breast at all.
Nevertheless, from their large size, hardihood, and prolificacy
many persons were induced, when they were first inti'oduced, to
turn Cochin cocks into their poultry yards with a view to the
improvement of the ordinary farmyard stock. Never was there a
more fallacious idea ; half breeds between the Cochin and the
common barndoor fowl are about the least useful variety of poultry
that can be imagined — they are gaunt, weedy, big-boned, angular,
yellow-legged birds, as accurately represented by Braquemond on
page 6 ; and it is only requisite to ask the opinion of the poultry
salesmen, and of the higglers who collect and fatten the fowls for
them from the country, to know the estimation in which such birds
are held. At the present time the value of Cochins chiefly depends
upon the hens being good sitters. Whatever merit they possessed
as profitable layers at the period of their introduction has been
entirely bred out by those who have reared them for the poultry
shows. Cochins are now perhaps the worst layers of any incubating
variety. As inhabitants of a farmyard, the present race of show
COCHINS. 15
Cochins is utterly useless. The alterations that hare been effected
in the breed may he inferred from the illustration, -which shows the
birds as the)* were when first introduced us contrasted with the
prize winners at the present time.
I stated in the introductory chapter that Cochins, as at present
exhibited, are a mass of useless feathers. Feathers consist of dry
animal matter, having very closely the same constituents as the
dry auhnal matter of flesh. Flesh, on the other hand, is animal
or nitrogenous matter united with three times its weight of water.
As far as feeding is concerned, it costs, therefore, as much in corn to
produce lib. of feathers as 41b. of meat, and if the plumage of a
Cochin weighs jib. more than is necessary, or in excess of the
weight of the plumage of other varieties, the materials that would
have made lib. of flesh have been wasted. And this wraste is repeated
at every annual moult. Is it surprising that poultry keepers who
do not breed for the show pen complain of the enormous appetite
of Cochins, the small amount of flesh, and the small numbers and
size of eggs that there are to show for the food they consume ?
A writer in the Feathered World, May 15, 1891, published a long-
critique on an article on " Farm Poultry," written by me and
published in the journal of the Royal Agricultural Society. In
this letter the Cochin is thus described : " The Cochin, a great,
lumbering, clumsy bird, is about the worst stamp of a bird a
farmer or cottager could have about the place, as far as profit goes.
As table fowls when and where did they ever beat in a table-fowl
class the cross-bred birds of the present day, specially reared for
the table ? As soon as they have laid about a dozen or a dozen
and a half of eggs, do they not show signs of becoming broody ?
As brooders they are certainly safe sitters, and as safe to squash
the chicks as they hatch out. And what of their eating propen-
sities'? I am sure they will give any other variety of fowl a long
start for the small comparative returns they give in eggs."
It is equally amusing and instructive to notice the energy with
which each fancier denounces the uselessness of those breeds that are
not to his liking. The " black sheep " of this writer are Cochins and
Spanish,' " neither of which varieties," he truly says, " are good all
round fowls for general purposes, viz.. egg producers and fit for
table."
CHAPTER V.
BRAHMAS.
As regards practical purposes, Brahinas may be regarded as
identical with Cochins, from which they differ only in slight fancy
characteristics, chiefly those of colour and marking. The breed
was manufactured in America, there is no evidence whatever that
they came from the banks of the river from whence they dei'ived
their name, no such birds being known in the locality. The qualities
of the Brahma as a profitable fowl, whether for the purpose of pro-
ducing food, eggs, or for crossing with other breeds, are identical with
those of the Cochin. Like the latter breed, it has since the time of
its first introduction been largely influenced by being reared as a
fancy fowl. Exactness of colour and marking has been secured,
abundant fluffy plumage has been obtained, and this in conjunc-
tion with greatly increased size. My friend the late Richard Teebay?
well and favourably known as a judge of poultry, had a Brahma
cock in his possession that was brought over from the United States,
where the breed originated, in an egg, which was afterwards
hatched in this country ; this bird attained the remarkable weight
of upwards of 171b.
As a market fowl, the Brahma cannot be recommended. It is
deficient of meat on the breast, has large, coarse legs, and is not of
high quality. The public are beginning to tire of these large and
comparatively useless breeds, and in the poultry journals of the
day there are loud lamentations over " The decadence of the large
breeds." In these letters, however, there is no assertion of any
value that they possess as useful poultry, they are mourned over
only as fancy fowl, bred for the purpose of obtaining prizes. One
of the largest breeders, writing of them} laments that they will
be less and less shown until larger prizes are offered and corre-
sponding higher entry fees resorted to.
The alteration which has been effected in this breed since its
first introduction in 1850, is shown in the engraving. From the
CO
<
<
CQ
BRAHMAS. 17
original fowl of the Cochin type, slightly modified by crossing with
an American variety, the birds have been altered into the form
shown in the other two figures. The effect that has been produced
has been most disastrous as far as regards any practical merits
that the birds ever possessed. Mr. Norris-Ely, one of the strongest
advocates of this breed, writing in The Feathered World of July 3rd,
1891, speaks of the alteration of the birds as being most effective in
the show pen as far as appearance is concerned, but adds that this
has been produced by sacrificing the laying power and fertility of
the strain, and the Stockkeejjer, in some articles on this variety,
states as follows :
" The Brahma used to be considered the farmer's fowl, because
of its immense size and good laying properties in the winter months,
when eggs are scarce, but now under altered conditions it is no
longer regarded as such. A few years ago 141b. to 161b. was no
uncommon weight for a Brahma cock, but now 121b. is very rarely
attained, and is the exception rather than the rule ; one other craze
has tended to detract from the useful properties of the Brahma for
farm purposes, and that is the quantity of feather on its legs and
feet. The present requirements of these two characteristics in the
show pen, viz., colour and feather, have transformed the Brahma
from the farmer's into the gentleman's fowl, making it now chiefly
to be regarded as purely a fancy bird."
Another point which renders the Brahmas and several other
show varieties utterly unfitted for practical use is the fact that in
order to breed birds that are successful at shows two distinct
breeding studs are required, one for the purpose of providing show
cockerels and tbe other for breeding pullets. Of course this point
is not generally known to the public at large. Amateurs think
that like will always produce like, and that chickens will resemble
their parents. They go to a show, buy prize or commended
cocks and hens, mate them together, and are surprised that
they can neither breed show cockerels nor show pullets from the
pair, being ignorant of the fact that separate studs are required to
produce birds of different sexes in order to win. In confirmation
of this statement I would quote again from the Stock Keeper, the
editor of which, in writing on Brahmas, savs :
" Another point that has perhaps bad some influence on the
seeming decrease of the popularity of the breed is, that separate
pens are required for the breeding of show cocks and hens, which
refers more especially to the dark variety, where it may be said
c
18 POULTRY FOR TABLE AXD MARKET.
there are two distinct sections, and need to be kept as distinct as
even darks and lights themselves. It is here that the amateur is
at sea. He naturally thinks that by mating the best exhibition
cock with the best exhibition hen he is likely to get offspring of
the best kind. Suffice it to say this is an entirely eiToneous
impression. The proper mate for the best exhibition cock is never
seen in the show jjen. Her modest garb and cloudy markings
would not grace the "wire cage of the show bench ; nor would, on
the other hand, the proper mate of the best exhibition hen satisfy
the judges in their requirements for a typical show cock."
The uselessness of such breeds for practical purposes need not
be insisted upon.
Unfortunately this inutility is not <:onfined to Brahmas, but
-xtends to nearly every variety bred for the show pen. That this
is recognised by all intelligent fanciers may be regarded as proved
by the following quotation from the treatise on "The Leghorn
Fowl," by Mr. L. C. Verrey, Honorary Secretary of the Leghorn,
Plvmouth Rock, and Andalosian Club. In this the author states
that
"It would be tolerably easy to mate a pen f<:>r breeding pur}
if it were possible to get cockerels and pullets of ecpual quality
from the same parents, but it is the same with Leghorns as with
all other kinds of fancy poultry where colour and markings are the
primary points. It is necessary to have two pens, one for breeding
males and the other for females."
CHAPTER VI.
LANGSHANS, PLYMOUTH ROCKS, AND WYANDOTTES.
Langshans.
The Langshans are another recently introduced Asiatic breed.
These, when iii'st imported, were so closely similar as to be almost
identical with black Cochins, with which they were generally con-
founded. The latter were not unfrequently exhibited in the classes
for Langshans, and won prizes. The breeders of the latter variety,
however, maintained their distinction and bred for different points,
selecting their stock for hardness and brilliancy of plumage, and
claiming for the birds the possession of useful qualities as table
fowl. The result has been that the birds have considerably altered
in type since the time of their first introduction, and may now be
regarded as the most profitable fowls of any of the recently
introduced Asiatic breeds. They have larger wings, and consequently
require larger breast muscles to move them, than either Brahmas
or Cochins, and, not having been bred for superabundant and
fluffy feather, they are better layers ; but with all these advantages
they fail to be a first-class market fowl, and, in the numerous
opportunities I have had of contrasting the birds at shows of dead
poultry, I have never seen Langshans exhibited that could be
regarded as of high quality as market or table fowl, although I
have had to give prizes to some in classes where the competition
was limited. The qualities in which the Langshan excels the
Cochin have, in the opinion of some of its admirers, been produced
1 y crossing with the Game. Miss Croad, writing in Poultry, April 3,
1891, states that the best proof we have of this is the account Mr
Housman gives of the strain he favours as a judge. He says, " I find
as a rule that those birds that are tall and tight-feathered have a
much better breast of full solid meat than those that are short and
fluffy; the flesh of the latter is much more spongy in character,
and the tight-feathered birds I alwajs find are much more hardy
c 2
20 POULTRY FOR TABLE AXD MARKET.
and healthy than the soft-feathered ones." Any more satisfactory-
opinion of the inutility of heavily-feathered fluffy fowls for table
or market purposes could hardly he required.
Some of the birds shown as Langshans are quite destitute of
feather on the shanks ; these have been exhibited, both before and
after having been crossed with other varieties, under the name of
Orpingtons.
Plymouth Bocks.
The tendency of the present system of exhibiting poultry is to
lead to the production of new breeds, obtained by crossing the older
varieties. When these have been so far established as to breed
tolerably true to the desired form and colour, which may be
accomplished in the course of three or four generations, they are
exhibited, and, if well puffed, command high prices as fancy stock,
are lauded far beyond their merits, and become for a time the rage.
The introduction of the breed called Plymouth Rocks is a good
example of this method of procedure. The present Plymouth Rock
is a cross between some of the Asiatic varieties and the cuckoo-
coloured fowls which are common in America, and are known as
Dominiques. Like all breeds that have been recently produced
by crossing, the Plymouth Rock is hardy and a good layer for a
sitting variety. Its recent origin is shown by tbe fact that a large
portion of the chickens do not breed true to colour, but come black
in place of being cuckoo-coloured. As a prolific bird for rough
household purposes the Plymouth Rock is not without its use; but
as a fowl for the market it is onlv necessary to ask the opinion of
the Surrey fatteners to learn its real value. I have only seen at the
shows of dead poultry one first-class couple of Plymouth Rock
chickens, and as their legs were white in place of being yellow —
the normal colour of the breed — their purity was doubtful. One
great characteristic of the Plymouth Rock is the brilliant yellow
colour of its skin. This is regarded as objectionable in a market
fowl in this country. In America, where the breed originated,
fowls are much more frequently used as " broilers " (viz., chickens
split down the back and grilled) than in this country, and the
colour of the skin is not regarded as objectionable. It is singular
that the fashion should have set in so strongly in favour of this
breed, when a far superior variety, with the same markings, but
with white skin and legs and better breasts — namely, the Scotch
Grey — was already known in this countrv, and is a bird much
WYANDOTTES. 21
superior as a table fowl. The Plymouth Eock cannot be recom-
mended to those who breed for the market.
Wyandottes.
At present another recently manufactured variety is coming
rapidly to the front, which, like the Plymouth Rock, has its very
distinctive markings to recommend it. This breed is known as the
Wyandotte, which has been made by crossing the Brahma with
some of the varieties of fowls that possess what is called the laced
plumage — that is to say, having the feathers margined by a black
band, like a mourning envelope. As a table fowl, the Wyandotte
possesses the characteristics of the Brahma, but as an egg producer
it is superior to that breed in consequence of the vigour imparted
by the recent cross ; but statements that have been recently
circulated as to its extreme prolificacy are such as no practical
poultry keeper can accept. It is doubtful whether any experienced
breeder for the table or the market would attempt to utilise such
a strain; but it is only fair to state that the Wyandotte fanciers
are strenuously endeavouring to breed good birds for the market,
and are offering prizes for the best dead Wyandottes ; but why
they should hamper themselves with breeding for feather if they
desire to raise market fowl it is difficult to perceive.
In a letter which appeared in the Field of October 24th, 1891,
respecting this effort, I stated that :
" By dint of careful selection for the last few years, Wyandottes
have been bred very closely up to the required standard of feather;
and, having done this, it is much to the credit of the fanciers who
constitute the North of England Wyandotte Association, that they
have turned their attention to improving the breed as a table fowl.
They resolved that classes for table fowl should be provided at
their next show ; and in their report they have recognised the
truth of the remarks that I have made about fancy poultry, as
hitherto exhibited, and establish these classes for the purpose of
doing, as they say, good service to the breed.
" The Countess of Bective, the president, supports the Wyandotte
as an all-round fowl, and considers that if the useful qualities of
the breed are not cultivated, and too much attention is paid solely
to fancy points, its popularity will soon be on the decline ; hence
the establishment of these table-fowl classes, for Wyandottes
only.
22 POULTRY FOR TABLE AND MARKET.
" I was much gratified at the fact that the hon. secretary, Mr.
W. H. Midgley, wrote to ine requesting to be allowed to reprint an
article of mine for circulation amongst the members, so that all
those intending to compete might be placed on an equality as to
the instructions for preparing and killing their fowls. I shall be
greatly interested in the result, as the object of the society is not
to advance the Wyandotte as a show bird only, but to cultivate the
useful properties which they believe it to possess.
" I believe this to be distinctly a step in the right direction with
regard to fancy fowls, and it is a source of gratification to me that
even one class of fanciers has recognised the value of the views I
have advocated for so many years."
This meritorious attempt on the part of the Committee of the
Association only resulted in showing how difficult it is to unite the
aims of the fancier, who breeds for show points, with those of
the rearer for the table and the market. The classes of Wyandottes
shown as dead table fowl did not receive the support anticipated.
The members said that all their time was occupied in the prepara-
tion of their live birds for the show, and that they had no time to
devote to the production of birds for the table. Consequently out
of 237 entries in the Wyandotte classes at York, only seven entries
were made in the table class for cockerels, and the class for pullets
was cancelled, there being only two entries. As I have said before,
Wyandottes are evidently becoming exceedingly popular amongst
the breeders of fancy fowls, but Avhether the breeding for laced
feathers is compatible with rearing good table birds, is a point on
which I entertain much doubt, although I cannot deny the
Association great praise for endeavouring to combine the qualities
of table and fancv fowls.
CHAPTER VII.
MALAYS. INDIAN GAME, AND xYSEELS.
Malays.
Before the introduction of the Cochins and the Brahmas, the
Malay breed had long- been known in this country. Birds were
frequently brought home by the ships arriving from Further India,
and sold to the dealers in the neighbourhood of the docks of both
Liverpool and London. Although not remarkable as prolific layers,
Malays were not without their use in increasing the size of some of
our breeds. I have already spoken of the introduction of a grey
Malay or Kulni cock strain into our modern breed of coloured
Dorkings ; but this size was accompanied with a considerably
increased length of leg and coarseness of bone, which can only be
regarded as objectionable ia fowls bred for the table.
Unfortunately for the practical value of the Malay breed, the
fanciers demanded long-legged birds, and instead of the extreme
length of leg being diminished, it was exaggerated by the influence
of poultry shows, the points aimed at being a long, closely, feathered
snake-like neck, and extremely elongated legs, with very scanty, hard
plumage, which rendered these attributes more evident.
Indian Game.
In the south-west counties of England another very useful breed
allied to the Malay has long been known. It was formerly termed
the Pheasant Malay, but is now known as the Indian Game, which
is an unfortunate name, as the bird is not a Game cock, nor even
the fighting cock of India ; but it has been largely exhibited under
this title, which is not now likely to be altered.
The Indian Game mav be described as a short-legged Malay, very
plump and meaty on the breast, with close, hard plumage, an
absence of any offal in the shape of comb or superfluous feather,
and altogether a most valuable table fowl, wanting, however, the
24
POULTRY FOR TABLE AND MARKET.
white skin of the Surrey fowl, which is so highly esteemed in the
hest table poultry. Its fault is a tendency to length of leg and
neck, which is rendered more evident by the closeness of its
plumage. I have advocated for several years the crossing of
this breed with the Dorking and the Surrey fowl to produce
birds for table purposes. It has recently come into fashion as an
exhibition fowl, and in consequence has become better known ; but
the circumstance has not been without its most serious drawbacks.
Indian Game Hex.
Indian Game as now exhibited are judged, not from their economic
value, their short legs, plump breasts with abundant meat, but from
their markings. To win prizes at competitive shows, the hens must
have laced or margined feathers, like those alluded to in speaking
of the Wyandotte. The result of this attention to fancy points is
that the show Indian Game are now bred for their laced feathers,
their plumpness and valuable table qualities being ignored, but
1 Indian Game not bred for this particular marking of feather
ASEEL. 25
are very generally distributed in Devonshire and Cornwall, and may
be obtained of many of the small farmers and cottagers in those
counties. In selecting Indian G-ame for crossing laced feathers
should be ignored., and birds with tight, hard plumage and very
plump, broad, meaty breasts should alone be chosen.
The engraving shows an Indian Game hen of very good form,
having the scanty plumage and prominent bi'east characteristic of
the variety. As an indication of the effect of competitive shows
on the breeds of poultry, I may state that on showing this
engraving to one of the best known of our poultry judges (the
late Mr. Nichols), he remarked that it was one of the best repre-
sentations of an Indian Game hen that he had ever seen, but
that the fanciers would object to it as being too prominent in
the breast and not sufficiently feathered in the neck, these points
being those that are indicative of its merits as a table fowl. The
outline of the bird was copied from one by Mr. Ludlow, which
was published in the Feathered World.
Aseel.
The true Indian fighting cocks, known as Aseel, have been for
some years introduced into this country, and have been carefully
bred by a few amateurs. They differ considerably from what are
termed the Indian Game, being smaller in size, and even more
prominent in breast. In projwrtion to their apparent bulk, they are
the heaviest fowls I have ever handled ; the amount of meat upon
the breast exceeds that of any other breed. But as profitable
poultry they have important drawbacks. The hens lay very few
eggs before they desire to sit, and the cocks are more combative
than any other known variety. Their courage and obstinacy in
fighting know no bounds. The young cocks will fight while little
chicken, and when they can no longer stand will lie upon the ground
and peck at one another. These qualities greatly interfere with
their value as profitable poultry ; but an Aseel cock crossed with
Surrey or Dorking hens produces chickens, the quality of which as
table fowls cannot be surpassed, although in size they do not equal
the cross-bred Indian Game and Dorking:.
OHAPTEE VII r.
THE FRENCH TABLE BREEDS.
HoUDANS, CkkVEC<EURS, AND La FLECHE.
In France much greater attention i> paid to the value of poultry as
furnishing: a supply of chickens and eggs for the table than is done
in this country. The more recent Asiatic breeds are not in demand.
The favourite French races are the Houdan, the Crevecceur, and
the La Fleche. These are all characterised by good quality of flesh,
plumpness of breast, and absence of offal. The Houdans and
Crevecoeurs have been rather extensively cultivated in England,
while the La Fleche, which furnishes the finest table pullets that
are seen at the shows of dead poultry in Paris, has been much more
rarely kept in this country, where it is regarded as somewhat
delicate.
Houdaxs.
The Houdan, since its introduction into England, has been
largely exhibited, classes for it being found at most poultry shows,
and it has become to a greater or less extent a fancy fowl, being
bred for size of crest and regularity of marking. The original
French Houdan would at the present time have no chance whatever
in a show of fancy poultry in this country. To win prizes in
England the feathered crests must be larger than in the French
birds, and the plumage more regularly spangled.
The engraving shows the original Houdan figured twenty-
five years since by the celebrated painter Jacque, an experienced
poultry keeper, and the author of " Le Poulailler," as a full
chested, moderately close-feathered, useful fowl for the table
and market, in couti'ast with the full crested, loose feathered
English show birds that are almost unable to see to feed.
Having been bred for some years solely for fancy points, the
size and good qualities of the Houdan have been greatly
lessened, and it is not now in the favour in which it used to
-
creveccevrs. 27
be held in this country. As a farmyard fowl, the modern
Houdan, with its huge crest, is useless. In addition to being
good table fowls, the Houdans in France are regarded as good
layers of large white eggs ; like the Dorking, it has an additional
toe, which is not of the slightest recommendation to it from a
practical or economic point of view.
Ceeyecceurs.
Closely allied to the Houdan, but entirely black in plumage, and
of somewhat larger size, is the Crevecceur, which is regarded as
furnishing some of the best table fowls that appear in the markets
of France. The Crevecceur is said by M. Jacque to be the best
race in France for the delicacy of flesh, rapidity of fattening, and
early maturity. The injurious effect on useful varieties, that is the
result of breeding for points which are appreciated in the show pen,
is admirably instanced in the following statement by the late Mr.
Nichols, the editor of the Stock Keeper, well known as a most
practical and reliable authority. Writing in that journal for
July 10, 1891, he states : " We have often felt that Crcves are
hardly as appreciated as they should be. Many years ago, at the
break up of the National Poultry Company at Bromley, several
specimens of this variety fell into our possession, and we found
thein very excellent and free layers of large eggs, but these
specimens, we should say, were not very heavily crested, and
as soon as we bred them for larger and more globular crests,
we lost much of the laying virtue. The other day at the farm of
the Aylesbury Dairy Company, Horsham, we saw a large flock of
these handsome fowls, which, although possessing good heads, had
nothing out of the way in the fashion of ' top-knots.' As this
company goes in for profit only, Ave should suppose that the
managers have also experienced the same results that we did, and
we should be glad to see the breed more largely cultivated for its
profitable merits apart from its exhibition points."
I do not desire any stronger confirmation of the correctness of
the views I have long maintained regarding the influence of breed-
ing for the show pen than is in this very important quotation.
Those who are acquainted with the value of the Crevecoeurs as
table fowls in France, may possibly have been surprised at their
want of appreciation in this country. Had they been bred, how-
ever, as useful poultry, they would not have been so slightly
appreciated ; but the object of the English fancier who breeds for
28
POULTRY FOR TABLE AND MARKET.
the show pen has not been the supply of large plump-chested table
fowls, which are also layers of exceedingly large eggs, but the
production of large globular crests perfectly free from white
feathers, and to this crest has been sacrificed the useful qualities
that on the other side of the Channel characterise this valuable
breed, which has been described by M. Jacque as being the best
race in France for delicacy of flesh, for rapidity of fattening, and
early maturity.
About thirty-five years since, when I was first experimenting
The Original French Ckevemzuk, after M. Jacque.
with cross-bred table fowl, I entered some cross-bred Crevecceurs
in the variety class at the original Crystal Palace Show, when
Messrs Baily and Andrews were the judges, in the vain and
delusive hope that their size, plumpness, and good qualities as table
poultry might commend them to the notice of the adjudicators. It
was, I think, the first intimation I received in the lesson I have
since learned so perfectly, namely, that the useful and edible
qualities of fowls are altogether ignored at poultry shows.
LA FLEL'HE.
29
La Fleche.
The La Fleche differs from the two previous breeds in having
!>ut few crest feathers on the head, and even these are frequently
absent. The comb consists of two pointed horns, which should be
but small. In the La Fleche bred in this country, exhibitors have
ignorantly tried to increase the size of the combs, apparently not
being aware that large combs, although they show that the birds
possessing them are good layers, also indicate that they are not
La Fleche Cock, after M. Jacque.
readily fattened. In this country the La Fleche are generally
regarded as being difficult to rear, and, although repeatedly
introduced, the breed has not maintained its ground. In France,
on the contrary, the pullets of this breed generally take the highest
prizes at the annual show of dead poultry at Paris, and when
fatted on buckwheat meal and milk they are of the highest
possible excellence.
:J0
POULTRY FOR TABLE AND MARKET.
The form of the La Fleche, as will be seen by the engravings,
which are accurately copied from those of M. Jacque, differs
considerably from that of the Houdan or Crevecoeur. The fowls
are larger, much closer in plumage, and consequently appear
longer on their legs. When dressed the skin is exceedingly white
and of fine quality, and the breasts are very plump and meaty.
From the experiments I made in cross-breeding with Crevecceurs,
to which I have referred in the former part of this chapter, I am
inclined to attribute the origin of the La Flcche to a cross between
La Fleche Hex. afteb 31. Jacque.
some of the older feather-crested breeds and a Malay. The
peculiar structure of the nasal bones and the two-horned comb
showing the crested parentage, and the plumage and general form
the Malay blood. And I feel assured that there would be no
difficulty in producing a most valuable and hardy table fowl on the
same lines by crossing Indian Game or Malay with a good useful
French Crevecoeur, and carefully selecting the chicken for a few
years, taking care not to interbreed.
CHAPTER IX.
XON-SITTL\G VARIETIES.
Spanish, Minorca, Andalusian, and Leghorn.
In those situations where the production of eggs is more remune-
rative than the rearing of table chickens, it will be found
advantageous to keep varieties that are non-incubating, as in these
the continuous production of eggs is not interfered with by the
hens becoming broody, and losing time in sitting, or in the desire
to do so. The most profitable non-incubating varieties of fowls
are unquestionably those that have been introduced into this
country from the shores of the Mediterranean. They ai'e known
under the names of Minorcas, Leghorns, Andalusians, and Spanish,
and are all birds of one well-marked type, though varying much in
colour and minor peculiarities. They are characterised by large,
flat, indented single combs, which are upright in the cocks, but,
from their thinness, fold over to one side in the hens. They are
all apt to be somewhat long on the leg, and very deficient of flesh
on the breast, hence they are not of high excellence as table fowl.
They are distinguished by the presence of white fleshy lobes of
skin under the ears (the ear-lobes as they are called by fanciers).
In the Spanish, the oldest of the races known in this country, this
white extends up to the comb over the whole face, which in the
other breeds is red.
Spanish.
The Spanish fowl is a remarkable example of the effect of
competitive shows, on what was formerly a most useful breed of
poultry. For many years the fanciers have bred this variety for
perfection of face, which, in the exhibition birds, must be purely
white, without the smallest speck of redness visible on its surface.
The white ear-lobe has also been enormously developed so as to
become 3in. or 4in. in length, and capable of being extended
32
POULTRY FOB TABLE AND MARKET.
laterally almost to the same width. The comb is of preter-
natural size, deeply indented with large serrations, perfectly
upright on the head in the cocks ; whilst in the hens it is corre-
spondingly enlarged, but folds over one side of the face, hiding
the eye. In order to obtain these results the birds are most
artificially treated. They are not allowed to go into the sunshine,
lest it spoil the whiteness of the face. They are kept in a high
temperature in order to develop the facial appendages to the
greatest possible degree, and to prevent the combs being frost-
bitten. The result has been, as far as regards the useful properties
of the bird, that it has become stilted, small in size, weakly in con-
Spanish Cock, after M. Jacque. Spanish Fowl as now Exhibited.
stitution, and almost useless as a layer. The most prolific black
Spanish, that were formerly to be found in many farm and stable
yards, are things of the past. The show birds are so useless that
no one but fanciers will keep them, and as profitable poultry the
breed has passed out of existence ; in fact, so few are now kept
that in many of the poultry shows no classes are inserted for them
in the schedules. The extraordinary development of this breed in
fancy characteristics, combined with its extinction as a useful fowl,
is the natural outcome of the present system of competitive shows
for fancy poultry. This opinion of mine regarding the influence of
MINOBCAS. 33
shows on the Spanish as useful fowls is one that I have long main-
tained. Writing in the year 1869 I stated " Whatever competitive
shows may have done for other breeds, they have certainly materi-
ally lessened the value of Spanish as useful fowls. In the place of
the large, prolific, hardy breed which was formerly known under
that name, we have a smaller race, very leggy, and feathering
with such slowness that chickens are often seen in prize pens
that have not produced their tail feathers. In fact, the useful
qualities of the race have been neglected in breeding for face
and eai--lobe."
In commenting upon my remarks on this breed in my introduc-
tory chapter, the late Mr Nichols, a trustworthy authority, writing
in the Storekeeper, maintained that I had overstated the case against
the present race of Spanish fowls, that the prize winner that I had
described as being absolutely sterile had really laid one egg, and
that the breed was not as delicate as I alleged, as he had kept high
class show birds in an open shed during the past winter, the cock
having suffered no further injury than the loss of part of his comb
and the ends of his toes. I expressed my thanks to the writer
for his correction of my statements ; but whether a hen lays one
egg or none, is not of great importance as regards profitable
poultry. Nor can I regard the hardihood of a breed as demon-
strated by the fact that a cock only loses part of his comb and the
ends of his toes during the winter.
Minorcas.
In the south-west of England, particularly in the counties of
Cornwall and Devonshire, a black fowl related to the Spanish is
very frequently to be seen in the farmyards and around the home-
steads. This is the Minorca, a larger and more profitable fowl
than its more aristocratic relative. The Minorca, as it existed a
few years ago, was a larger, more compact, shorter legged bird
than the Spanish, infinitely more robust and hardy. The face,
unlike that of the last-named breed, was red, the ear-lobe only
being white. The Minorca is a non-incubating vai'iety, laying an
abundance of large white eggs. The hens rarely, if ever, sit; and
the pullets, if hatched early and well fed during the winter months,
can be depended upon for a supply of eggs during the cold weather.
As egg producers, as distinguished from table birds (for as market
D
34 POULTRY FOB TABLE AND MARKET.
fowls tliey have slight value, though, of course, useful for home
consumption), it is doubtful whether any breed would excel the
old farmyard Minorca. At the present time it has, unfortunately
for its economic value, got into the hands of the poultry fanciers,
and at the shows classes for Minorcas are large and well filled.
It is needless to say that the egg-producing qualities cannot be
recognised in the show pen. What is bred for is, first and fore-
most, an unnaturally large, regularly toothed, and upright comb,
which is 3in. or 4in. high in the cocks, and immaculate white e*r-
lobes in both sexes. The elevation of the Minorca into the dignity
of an exhibition breed is, in the interests of profitable poultry
keeping, much to be regretted, for in the course of a few years they
will probably have rivalled the Spanish in their sterility and use-
lessness, and we may hear of Minorca hens like those of the
Spanish breed, taking first prizes that have never laid more than a
single egg. The effect of the show system on this most useful
breed was very plainly set forth at a recent meeting of the Exeter
Poultry Society, when Mr. J. Physick gave his experience of
eighteen years with the Minorcas, and showed how they had been
changed from short-legged, square-bodied useful birds, into
others which possessed, to use his own words, " the long shanky
legs of the modern show game fowl," with large ear-lobes and
enormous combs.
AxDALUSIAXS.
Auother breed of the Mediterranean type, differing mainly in
colour from the Minorca, is that known as the Andalusian. It was
formerly of a slatey-grey, blueish tint ; but as now exhibited it is
required to be shown with a dark lacing or edging round each of
the breast and body feathers. Allowed a free range, and bred
from parents that have not been reared in close confinement, as is
the case with large numbers of show fowls, Andalusians are most
profitable layers of large white eggs, rivalling the Minorca in
this respect. The pullets when hatched early are good winter
layers, and had as much trouble been taken in breeding from the
most prolific instead of from the best-feathered hens, it is doubtful
if any breed would have been more advantageous as egg-pro-
ducing fowl.
LEGHORNS. 37
Leghorns.
Another breed, which obviously originated on the shores of the
Mediterranean, is the Leghorn, which was first known as a yellow-
legged, white-plumaged variety. The birds shown in the engraving
were those first introduced into this country by myself from
America in the year 1869. The Leghorn is also a non-sitter,
and a most proli6c layer of white eggs. It has lately come
into greater fashion as a show fowl, and various colours have
been developed in the plumage. The so-called brown Leghorns
have been made by crossing with black-red game, and recently a
breed, with much white in its composition, called Pile Leghorns,
and other colours, such as Black, Buff, and Cuckoo, have been
produced. Leghorns are generally smaller than the Minorcas or
Andalusians.
The engraving is a very accurate representation of the first
trio of White Leghorns which were imported to this country by
myself in 1869. Not having been bred for show points, they were
most prolific, and promised to become a very useful addition to
our egg-producing breeds ; but, having been raised to the dignity
of an exhibition fowl, more attention has been paid to their white
ear lobes and serrated combs than to their prolificacy.
CHAPTER X.
NON-SITTING AND OTHER VARIETIES.
Hamburgs.
Under the general name of Hamburgs, several distinct, though'
allied, varieties of fowls are now exhibited. They are called the
gold and silver pencilled, the gold and silver spangled, and the
black Hamburgs. The so-called pencilled birds were originally
imported in considerable numbers from Holland, and were called
pencilled Dutch, or Dutch every-day layers ; they were also
formerly known as Chitteprats, and by various other local names.
In this breed each feather is marked by several transverse bars of
black on a lighter ground, which is white in the silver and bay in
the golden pencilled breed. The pencilled Hamburgs are small
fowls, and, when young, the hens lay so well as to merit their title
of " every-day layers." Nevertheless, they are hardly adapted for
use as profitable poultry, inasmuch as their eggs are too small to
have good market value, and the birds, though plump, are not
large enough to furnish first-rate market poultry. Both breeds are
delicate, and subject to colds and roup, which delicacy has been
greatly increased by close inter-breeding for exhibition purposes.
The birds now termed spangled Hamburgs were formerly known
in the North of England under two distinct names — Lancashire
Moonies, from the large moon-shaped marks on the ends of the
feathers of the hens, and Pheasant Fowl, from their supposed
derivation from a cross with the pheasant — a theory which has no
foundation in fact, the hybrid between the pheasant and the fowl
being sterile. Spangled Hamburgs were formerly extensively kept
in Lancashire and Yorkshire ; they are larger and hardier than the
pencilled varieties, and much less subject to roup. They used to be
regarded as possessing great merit as egg-producers, although
their eggs are not as large as those of the Mediterranean breeds ;
but for many years they have been exhibited solely for accuracy
of marking in the plumage and correctness of form in the comb ;
POLISE. 39
in the exhibition birds no account has been taken of their egg-
producing properties, which have consequently greatly deteriorated.
Beautiful as the breeds unquestionably are, it is doubtful whether
they equal the best of the Mediterranean varieties as profitable
fowls. The breed which is termed the black Hamburg has
probably been made by crossing with the Minorca or Spanish ; it
is now an established exhibition variety, and is bred for fancy
points. It is, however, larger, more hardy, and a producer of
larger eggs than the spangled varieties.
Polish.
The title of Polish as applied to fowls is another misnomer —
at least, if it is used in a geographical sense — as no such birds
are known in Poland. The birds which are so designated are
distinguished by large tufts of feathers on the head, the presence
of which is always acconrpanied by a remarkable alteration in the
structure of the skull, and a deficiency of the bones of the nose.
These so-called Polish are old breeds, the ancestors of which may
be seen in the paintings of the older Dutch animal painters,
such as Hondoketer and others. Doubtless the frugal Dutch
selected the most prolific egg-producers for stock ; but when the
Polish became exhibition fowls in England, the selection of
the largest-crested birds for brood stock, those that would be most
successful in the show pen, was always followed. Hence the size,
stamina, and egg-producing properties of these breeds have been
very greatly deteriorated. The black Polish with white crests are
now so delicate as to be absolutely worthless, and the large spangled
varieties have lost for the most part their size and prolificacy. As
farmers' fowls the Polish have never been regarded as of high
value, their feathered crests interfering with their sight, and
rendering them liable to run under the heels of horses and cattle,
and fall into danger of all kinds. Moreover, from the deficiency of
the bones of the skull, the slightest blow on the top of the head
is fatal. One advantage certainly the Polish possessed, that of
exceeding plumpness ; and there is no doubt that the best French
table breeds, viz., Houdans, Crevecceur, and La Fleehe, owe their
good qualities in great part to their having been derived from the
old crested breeds that so often figured in the paintings of the
old Dutch artists, and then to being bred by the frugal French
housewives for their market value alone. In this country, where
40 POULTRY FOR TABLE AND MARKET.
the show Polish have been bred solely for fancy points, they have
become utterly worthless as farm poultry.
Other Varieties.
There remain several varieties of fowls known to the fancier, and
more or less frequently exhibited at our shows, which hardly call
for any detailed notice in a work devoted exclusively to market
and egg-producing poultry. Such are the black-skinned, black-
boned Silky fowls, characterised by a white downy plumage,
which contrasts strongly with the black combs and skin. These
birds are not without their value, as furnishing the best of all
possible mothers for rearing pheasants and other small game
birds ; but as farmers' fowls they are infinitely worse than useless,
as the introduction of a single bird into a farmyard will lead to
the production of cross-breeds, which, although perhaps neither
black in the skin nor silky in the plumage, have black bones and
layers of black tissue between the muscles, rendering them unsale-
able as table poultry. It is true that these birds are exceedingly
good eating ; but if a purcha&er unexpectedly finds a srreak of
black in the meat on the breast, and black bones in the bird he is
carving, he is apt to attribute it to disease, and to send away the
fowl untasted.
Frizzled fowls, in which the feathers curl away from the body,
constitute a most unprofitable breed, inasmuch as the rain, instead
of running off the plumage, passes down to the skin ; and the birds
thus exposed to the influence of the weather are bad layers and
exceedingly delicate.
Rumpless or tailless fowls are curious varieties, which are not
valuable as market birds, and which have a disposition to lay
unfertilized eggs.
Red-Caps may be regarded as Spangled Hamburgs in which the
combs have been developed to an enormous size, so that they do
not balance on the skull, but fall over to one side. This develop-
ment of comb can only be secured by the expenditure of a certain
amount of nourishment ; and as combs are not valued as food in
England, the production of so much animal matter, which is not
appreciated, is a useless waste.
Bantams of all kinds are so purely fancy fowls that they may be
dismissed without further notice.
Some few remarks should be made on the exceedingly mixed
OTHER VARIETIES. 41
assemblage of birds which are called barndoor fowls. In many
parts of the country these were formerly characterised by a strong
infusion of game blood, arising from the general habit of breeding
Game cocks, and the fact that in many of the old leases that were
drawn up, when cock fighting was uot an illegal amusement, a
clause was inserted that each tenant should " walk " a cock for the
proprietor of the soil.
In the south-western counties of England, the common fowls
show the effect of the introduction of birds from the Mediterranean,
and others from India, which were introduced by the ships from
those countries touching at the seaports, or being wrecked upon
the shore. Before the era of poultry shows, farmyard birds were
generally selected for their profitable characteristics. The figure
of the domestic cock in the " British Birds " of the inimitable
Bewick, which is reproduced on page 4, shows what these birds
were before they were detei'iorated by crossing with fancy varieties.
In some instances the introduction of good breeds, such as
Dorkings and Indian Game, amongst the small farmers and
cottagers, by the landed proprietors, has resulted in the farm-
yard birds being greatly improved. In other cases much injury
has been done by the introduction of fancy varieties ; and it is
difficult to imagine a proceeding more ridiculous, or which has
proved a greater failure, than the collection of show breeds for
the improvement of the poultry of the Irish peasams that was
lately carried into effect by one of the Irish nevv spapers.
CHAPTEK XL
IMPROVING FARM POULTRY.
In our farmyards and homesteads may be seen, not unfrequentlv,
a very considerable number of ordinary fowls of no particular
breed, that have neither been selected as prolific egg layers nor
carefully bred as poultry for the market. They are of all ages
and sizes, having been not unfrequentlv seriously deteriorated
by the introduction of two or three bantams, which have been kept
for the amuse men u of the mistress or children. It is needless to
say that these poultry do not pay, and, even if they have the waste
food of the farmyard, are hardly to be regarded as remunerative.
The question which presents itself is whether this stock is capable
of improvement without going to the expense and trouble of
clearing off all the birds and beginning afresh.
A short time since I had the following letter sent me, which
expresses the requirements of many besides the writer. Speaking
on behalf of himself and others, he says : " We want to know how to
improve our poultry without being obliged to clear out, and we wish
to know whether pure or cross-bred are the best all-round fowls for
heavy land farms? The birds we require must lay well, kill well,
be very hardy, and range well, be good mothers, and sit well, as we
want them to hatch ducks and guinea fowls as well as chickens.
What cockerels had better be turned down with seventy to eighty
hens, which originally were Brahma-Dorkings, but for the last few
years have been bred in and in, and before then crossed twice
with Dorkings — as feathered legs won't do on cold wet clay land.
"We want good winter layers, not very early chickens."
To improve the stock of an ordinary farmyard, where the fowls
have deteriorated from in and in breeding often carried on for
some years in succession, a very remorseless sacrifice of the waste
birds must be made. In the first place, all the male birds, young
and old — more especially the latter — must be got rid of, sold,
eaten, or even given away, for not one of the males should be
IMPROVING FARM POULTRY. 43
allowed to remain. The hens should then he all caught, carefully
sorted, and only those hatched in the last season and the season
before being retained, as they are the only prolific layers. It is
all very well for those who are breeding for feather or fancy points
to keep, for stock purposes, old hens in which these qualities
are well marked, but for farmers and others who breed for eggs
and chicken for the market to do so is unadvisable. In addition
to the old birds, any small hens that were hatched either very late
or very early in the season should be remorselessly killed and
eaten, as they are never good layers, nor will they produce
vigorous chicken. In this way all the cocks and the worst of the
hens should be weeded out. Now comes the question as to the
breed of the new cocks that are to be introduced. Generally
speaking, a short-legged, square-bodied Dorking will be found to
answer the purpose very well, but in some cases — as that of the
correspondent whose letter appears above — Dorking blood chiefly
prevails, and then it would be desirable to cross with a totally
different strain. Let me caution all farmers to avoid introducing
either Cochins or Brahmas. It is tme a large increase in size will
result, but coarseness of bone, and scarcity of meat on the breast,
will be inevitable. A good close-feathered Indian Garne, or an
old-fashioned short-legged fighting Game, furnishes a very good
cross, or a good Surrey or Sussex cockerel, such as are reared
for the higglers, would be most useful.
Three or four cockerels would be amply sufficient for seventy or
eighty hens ; but in such a case it would be better, if it could be
conveniently managed, to place in a large separate grass run some
half dozen or dozen of the best short-legged, fine-boned, close-
feathered hens with one of the cocks, and hatch all their eggs,
thus ensuring breeding from the best. Great care must be taken
that the birds are all in the most vigorous condition. The cross-
breeds will be hardy, good layers, good sitters and mothers —
qualities possessed by most cross-breeds, but certainly by those
bred from Indian game and farmyard fowls. To utilise these
birds in the best manner, all the cockerels should be killed off
when ready for the table, not one being left ; and the old cocks
should also be got rid of, sold, or exchanged — which they may be
if there are any other farmers in the neighbourhood who rear
their fowls on common-sense principles.
If the old cocks are retained they must necessarily breed with
their own pullets, and loss of size and strength is the result.
44 POULTRY FOR TABLE AND MARKET.
It may be said that this changing of stock birds is a trouble.
Granted ; but I do not know any good results in any pursuit that
are to be obtained without trouble.
It may be asked, are not the young cross-bred cockerels worth
breeding from ? They most certainly are, but not with their own
sisters and mothers. If it is wanted to breed from the cross-breds,
there must be an exchange with another farmer, or two distinct
lots must be kept on different parts of the same farm.
I fully believe in the desirability of setting aside a cock and
eight or ten of the best hens to lay eggs for hatching, either in a
large inclosed grass run or at a neighbouring cottage. I also
think it desirable to vary the breed of the stock birds year after
year, as the continual crossing has the effect of giving not only
increased size, but great vigour and fertility.
The utility of this plan is recognised by all practical breeders for
the markets, and I have much pleasure in quoting from the last
volume of the ''Agricultural Book of Scotland," in which the
editor controverts the suggestion of one of his contributors, who
recommended the introduction of fancy stock into farmyards, and
writes : " Brahmas and Cochins are miserable birds for the table,
and a cock of either breed will spoil a whole farmyard — -coarse
legs, coarse bone, coarse skin, and, in proportion to the large coarse
legs, shallow breasts. But great improvement in the stock of
birds ordinarily found in homesteads may be effected by turning
down every year a full-chested, meaty cock, which may be a Surrey
fowl, Dorking, Indian Game, or the old-fashioned English breed ;
but the young half-bred cockerels should all be killed, and a fresh
old bh*d introduced every year, the breed being altered from that
of the last season."
CHAPTER XII.
HOUSING.
The first consideration in keeping poultry is the accommodation that
has to be affoi'ded them. Where they are bred for market it is
obvious that expensive poultry-houses, fitted with the requirements
of the fancier for keeping his birds distinct, are inapplicable.
What is really required in a poultry-house is a sufficient space for
the perches and the nests. As poultry-houses are usually con-
structed, the perches run from side to side, each one being higher
than the preceding, the back one reaching nearly to the roof. The
perches are put in this position because persons have observed that
the fowls always prefer ascending to the highest level — a habit
which is obviously derived from the instinct which leads them to
ascend to the higher branches of the trees, so as to escape their
natural enemies, such as foxes, jackals, and other terrestrial beasts
of prey. A fowl roosting a considerable height in a tree descends
by flying down in a very oblique line, so as to alight at some con-
siderable distance, consequently its fall is not rapid, and it does
not strike the ground with violence ; but when it roosts on a high
perch in a house, it cannot fly down, but has to drop nearly per-
pendicularly, and consequently comes with great violence to the
ground, not unfrequently, in heavy specimens, breaking the keel of
the breast bone, and inducing disease of the feet by the force with
which they strike the earth. These are not the only evils that
arise from this absurd, though exceedingly common, arrangement
of the perches. All the fowls wish to go to the top perch, and
fight for the possession of it, the weaker being knocked off and
often injured. These evils may be entirely avoided by placing
all the perches on one height, which should not be more than 4ft.
from the ground. The fowls can then descend without injury ;
and any individual one that may be required is easily captured
at night, after they have gone to roost.
When low perches are used, care must be taken that there are
no beams or rafters above, on to which the fowls can fly, or they
will invariably try to do so. In case these exist and cannot be got
46 POULTRY FOB TABLE AND MARKET.
rid of, access to thein must be prevented by the use of coarse wire
work or lathing.
In small narrow poultry-houses it is customary to make the
perches reach from side to side, so that it is difficult to gain access
to those at the back. If they are all placed on one level, a much
better arrangement is to leave a broad passage np one side, the
ends of the perches next to it resting on a horizontal bar, which is
supported by one upright in front and by the back of the house
behind. This leaves a path up one side, along which the laying-
boxes or nests can be placed upon the ground, in a position that does
not expose them to be soiled by the birds that are perching above.
When fowls are weakly bred they often become crooked in the
breast. Most persons imagine this to arise from the use of small
perches ; no idea can be more fallacious. If fowls are allowed to
roost in the trees like pheasants, they will always be observed to
select the smaller branches on which to rest. These they can
grasp securely by the toes, and are not in danger of being blown
off by the wind. In fact, as a fowl sinks down upon its breast
bone to roost, the toes close around the branch, which is thus held
securely — an action which anyone may imitate by extending the
legs of a dead fowl, placing the toes around the finger, and then
pressing it towards the body, when they will be found to close
around and grasp the finger. Roosting in this way, the fowls rest
upon the feet cpuite as much as upon the breast bone ; but placed
on a broad, flat perch, such as is frequently employed, this is
prevented. The whole weight of the bird comes upon the keel of
the breast bone, which, if the fowl is weakly, is apt to be rendered
crooked by the pressure.
In many farmyards and homesteads it will be found much more
advantageous to allow the birds to roost where they like, in cart-
sheds, unused barns, trees, &c, if in these places they are safe from
pilferers. Roosting out in the open air gives them much finer
health and condition than when shut up in the close, stifling, foetid
atmosphere of an ill-ventilated, dirty poultry house. But, as these
conditions are not always available, it is necessary in the majority
of cases to form a house of some kind or other ; an unused stall
in a stable makes a very good house for a small number of fowls.
A shelf formed of loose flat boards may be placed over the manger,
and the perches put a few inches above them. The manger itself
may be divided into two or three nesting places, being filled with
moist earth, covered with a little short, soft straw; the boards
HOUSING. 47
above receive the droppings from the perching fowls, and these
can be removed daily with a small short-handled hoe.
If fowls are to be kept in health, they must have sweet, wholesome
places to roost in. Eggs hatch very badly in a fcetid atmosphere ;
and those which are hatched in a house do not, on the average,
produce so large a number of chickens as those under hens that
nest out in the open air, nor are the chickens so vigorous.
Cleanliness — without which thei'e can be no purity of the air —
is an absolute necessity in a well-managed poultry house. The
surface beneath the perches should be covered with some material
that can be removed at least twice a week ; dry mould will answer
the purpose very well, or ashes from the house. Some of the most
successful poultry keepers have adopted the use of peat moss litter.
Whatever is employed, the manure should be removed frequently,
so as to keep the house perfectly sweet and wholesome. For this
purpose also openings for ventilation should be made ; but care
should be taken that a direct draught does not blow upon the birds.
They can stand the cold and wind in winter, when roosting in the
open air, as well as pheasants and peacocks ; but they are amenable
to the Spanish proverb, which says :
If the wind reach you through a hole,
Go make your will, and mind your soul.
A poultry house, to keep it clean from vermin, should be lime-
whitened, once or twice a year, with wash made with freshly slaked
lime — to which it is desirable to add carbolic acid, which will be
found most destructive to the insects. This lime wash should not
merely be spread on the external surface, but directed, as far as
possible, into the cracks and joints of the perches, nest boxes, &c.
Unless there is ample provision for the fowls to dust themselves
under some dry shed, a dusting bath may be placed in the house,
although it is preferable outside ; but wherever it is put it should
be kept dry. Any shallow box open at the top answers the purpose
very well, and it should be filled with fine ashes from the house.
The fowls will not be slow to avail themselves of the advantages
it offers to throw dust in between their feathers to get rid of the
vermin which naturally infest them ; although it is only badly fed,
badly managed fowls that live in dirty houses, where the fleas and
lice breed in myriads in the unchanged nests, that become badly
infested. A fowl swarming with vermin is an indubitable proof of
the bad management to which it has been subjected.
CHAPTER XIII.
FEEDING.
The cost of maintaining fowls that have a free run in a farmyard
of mixed husbandry is very small, for they supply themselves
with a considerable proportion of their food — not merely without cost,
but with advantage to the owner, inasmuch as they pick up grain
and seeds, which, if carried into fields with the manure, produce
plants that can only be regarded as weeds. The amount of food
that fowls gain in this way cannot be accurately estimated ; it
depends entirely on the character of the farm. If thrashing is
going on continuously, very little food is required to be given ; at
other times it must be supplied with a more liberal hand. Those
fowls which require to be supported entirely by hand (excepting
the food that they obtain for themselves in the fields or orchards)
should be fed at least twice a day. This feeding is generally very
badly managed. A measure of corn is taken out and thrown down day
after day in the same spot. The fowls scramble for it, the stronger
drive away the weaker, the old cocks chase the young ones, and the
food is picked up off ground covered with fowl dung, and is eaten
in a filthy, unwholesome state. When I see fowls fed in this way,
it reminds me of the mode of feeding human beings in some Oriental
prisons, where the food is thrown down on the floor reeking with
unutterable abominations. Jail fever amongst the human, and
disease among the feathered bipeds, are results not to be surprised
at. The idea of causing fowls to eat corn defiled with their own
excrement is to me repulsive in the highest degree ; and it is, I know
from experience, most injurious to the high condition of the birds.
To feed fowls properly with grain, they should not be fed at the
house door, but out in the open, and the corn scattered among the
grass as widely as possible. Not a single grain will be lost ; the
fowls will search for it until every one has been found; and, instead
of filling their crops in an unnatural manner and to an undue
fulness, they will have had exercise in collecting their food, which
FEEDING. 49
is taken gradually and in an advantageous mode, much more in
accordance with nature.
Fowls, if they are to produce eggs or to get in high condition,
should be well fed. They should twice a day have nearly, but not
quite, as much as they can eat. No intermediate feeding should
be allowed — no throwing out of waste house scraps at uncertain
times; for if this is done and the fowls are accustomed to it,
they will hang about the house, and run after anyone they
see emerge from the doorway, in place of wandering about the
fields seeking and gaining a considerable quantity of food for
themselves.
The kind of food that should be given to the stock birds in a
farmyard will depend upon the grain which is cheapest at the time
and most easily obtained by the proprietor. Small tail corn, small
barley, cannot be utilised better than by giving it to the birds.
Foul and musty corn, however, should not be used, inasmuch as it
imparts a bad taste to the eggs, and to the flesh of the growing
chicken. Green food should hardly ever require to be given,
because the fowls should only be kept under such conditions that
they can obtain it for themselves. Small potatoes, boiled and
mixed with a certain proportion of bran, or, still better, sharps,
pollard, or middlings, so as to be able to be formed into balls of a
friable character, furnish very admirable food for the stock, and
may advantageously form the whole of one of the everyday meals.
If light oats are given to fowls they are much better relished if
previously soaked in water, when the lightest are eaten. I am
convinced that the practice of always giving dry hard corn is not
advantageotis, for neither pheasants nor fowls could obtain such
food in a state of nature. The seeds that they would get would
be almost always more or less moist; and the closer we can imitate
the natural condition of things the better. Fowls would progress
more advantageously if, instead of giving them hard, dry corn,
which frequently swells in the crop, and produces " crop bound,"
we were to give them moist corn, and scatter it so widely that they
can obtain it grain by grain.
At the present price of maize, it is often advantageous to use it as
a portion of the food for fowls ; but it contains a larger percentage
of fatty matter than any other grain, and, if given abundantly, is
far too fattening for laying hens. It may, however, be used
partially in winter with very great advantage. It is not adapted
for fattening for the table, inasmuch as it produces a soft, yellow,
E
50 POULTRY FOR TABLE AND MARKET.
oily fat, in place of the firm, whitened flesh that is required by the
first-class poulterer.
As the conditions under which fowls are kept are so variable, it is
impossible to give an accurate estimate of their cost. It may vary
from even less than half-a-crown a head per annum in farmyards
of mixed husbandry, where thrashing and horse-keeping is going
on, to 5s. or 6s. a head where they are entirely hand-fed.
CHAPTER XIV.
HATCHING.
In the majority of poultry houses the nests are made in boxes,
raised from the ground in rows placed on shelves, and packed as
closely as possible in tiers one above the other. These nest boxes
are furnished with straw or hay. It is difficult to conceive a moi-e
unsatisfactory arrangement ; the nests are so dry that the eggs fail
to hatch. The sitting hens are packed so closely together that in
a short time they swarm with fleas and vermin. As in all other
circumstances connected with stock, the nearer we can imitate the
perfect arrangements of nature the better. The nest of a hen or
pheasant is naturally placed on the damp ground, where the eggs
are exposed to the changes of the weather previous to the hen
sitting upon them ; yet, unless inundated by water arising from
the rainfall, they rarely fail to hatch. The frosts of early spring,
the showers of April, the alternations of temperature in day and
night have no evil effect upon them. They hatch much more success-
fully and produce much more vigorous chickens than the eggs of
the poultry-fancier that are carefully packed away in drawers filled
with bran, and kept at an even temperature until placed under the
hen. The closer we follow nature the better. Our nests, like hers,
should be upon moist ground. If the hen is not liable to be dis-
turbed, and we want early and vigorous chickens, the best plan is
to leave the eggs untouched in the nest, and let the hen warm
them up every time she deposits a fresh one — in plain words, to
leave her alone altogether. But this, unfortunately, is not often
practicable. Hens are fond of laying where others have laid before,
and consequently we are compelled to alter the natural mode of
procedure. Our artificial nests, however, should always be made
on the damp ground. A bushel of ordinary mould thrown into a
corner or against the wall, and surrounded with a few bricks to keep
it in position, or placed in a shallow box or half-sieve market basket,
forms the best foundation for a nest for poultry. A handful of
e 2
52 POULTRY FOB TABLE AND MABKET.
short straw can then be taken, and with it the mould rubbed
round into a slight hole, which, with the straw, constitutes an
admirable nest.
If many hens are set in the same house, some contrivance is
necessary for the purpose of preventing their being intruded upon
when sitting; for a strange hen trying to force her way into the
nest of a sitting hen is almost certain to result in the breaking of
the eggs, and consequent loss of chickens.
When it is ascertained that a hen has become decidedly broody,
the eggs can be given to her at night, each oue being marked with
a ring made round it, or by crosses on the opposite sides, so that
if, by any accident, another egg is laid in the nest, it may at once
be seen and removed. If the hens are confined in the nests by
coops or wire work, they should be taken off at a regular hour
every day, abundantly supplied with food and water, and watched
until they return to the nests — a proceeding which it is necessary
to do to avoid two hens going on oue nest, and breaking the eggs.
Most poultry rearers have the erroneous idea that the chickens will
be killed if the hens are absent so long a time that the eggs
become cold, and are very fidgety as to the return of the hens on to
the nest after a short period. This anxiety is entirely misplaced,
as the eggs may be allowed to become cold without injury to the
vitality of the chickens. This is especially the case in the early
stages of incubation.
The fresher the eggs that are used for hatching the better. None
should have been laid more than ten days, or a fortnight at the
outside. The number of eggs placed under a hen usually varies
from ten to fifteen. In cold weather it is exceedingly desirable not
to put so large a number under the hen that the outer are merely
covered with the feathers. When only a proper number are given
they are actually in contact with the naked skin of the breast of
the hen, and not with the feathers alone. This fact may readily
be ascertained by putting the hand on the eggs under a quiet hen,
when the warm skin of the breast will be found in contact with
them.
Should the hen on coming off the nest not be allowed to go out
into the open and dust herself, a box filled with dry ashes should
be provided in the hatching house.
On the seventh day after setting the hen, the eggs should be
tested, and those that do not contain chickens removed. The most
simple egg-tester is made out of a piece of cardboard ; the cover of
HATCHING.
53
an old book answers very well. An oval hole should be cut in it,
not quite large enough to allow an egg to pass through, and if the
cardboard is white, one side should be inked or painted black.
The eggs are more con-
veniently removed from
the hen at night, or if in
day they should be taken
into a room from which
daylight is excluded. A
single lamp only should
be used. The cardboard,
with the darkened side
towards the observer,
should be held near the
chimney of the lamp,
and the eggs one after
another, should be held
against the hole. Those
that contain chickens
will be observed to be
quite dark and opaque,
except at the larger end,
where the air-space exists.
These should be replaced
under the hen. Those
that have not been fer-
tilised, and are consequently sterile, are sufficiently transparent
to allow the light to pass through, and look as fresh eggs
would if examined m the same manner. Such eggs are usually
termed " clear." These clear eggs are perfectly good to eat ;
but it is preferable to save them for the food of the chickens
when hatched. Throwing them away is a wasteful proceeding.
If two or three hens are set upon the same day, and all the eggs
examined at the end of a week, it will be found advantageous, if
many are clear, to give all the fertile eggs to one or two of the
hens, when a fresh batch of new-laid eggs may be placed under the
other. It is a most uneconomical mode of proceeding to set a
single hen in the early spring, when perhaps a considerable number
of the eggs will be clear, and allow her efforts at hatching to be
rewarded with one or two chickens, when by setting several together
full clutches may always be ensured.
Method of Testing Eggs.
54 POULTRY FOR TABLE AXD MARKET.
In placing eggs under hens, very foolish mistakes are often made
as to their selection. The eggs taken should he of the average size,
neither too large nor too small The largest eggs often contain
two yolks, and rarely hatch, or, when they do so, produce deformed
chickens, or birds with extra wings or legs ; and the smaller eggs
show that the vitality of the hen is lessened during the time they
are being formed. Eggs with thin shells — which can often lie
detected by their external appearance — should never be placed
under a hen ; they are certain to be broken and soil the others.
Those with anv irregularity of shell should invariably be rejected.
I do not think in all my experience that I have ever known an egg
witn an irregular shell — such as a ridge round the centre, or any
other irregularity — to hatch ; although I confess to having tried
the experiment many times when breeding from birds that were
valuable.
Under ordinary circumstances, the eggs hatch on the same day
three weeks as they were placed under the hen. No interference
with them during the period of hatching is desirable. Poultry
keepers, especially breeders of valuable fancy birds, are very apt
to be meddlesome with the eggs at hatching time ; they cannot
resist the temptation of taking them out from under the hen,
seeing how they are hatching, removing the empty egg shells,
enlarging the openings which the chick makes for itself, when
they generally wound some of the blood vessels of the skin, which
are not yet closed, and do far more harm than good. I am firmly
convinced that the lives of many chickens are sacrificed by undue
interference for every one that is saved by any aid that is given.
The chicken has on the tip of its bill a little hardened point, by
which it cuts off the top of the shell by blows from the inside, and
thus liberates itself. If it is too weakly to do this, it is not likely
to be of much value, or ever to develop into a good bird. When
hens and pheasants hatch out in the open, it is rare, as I have said
before, that they do not bring off a full strong clutch, without any
interference on the part of their owners.
At the present time many persons are in the habit of employing
incubators in the place of broody hens. There is no doubt that
good incubators are valuable additions to a poultry yard where
many chickens are raised. I have used them myself with very great
success and advantage. In a well-constructed incubator fully as
many chickens can be hatched from a given number of eggs as
under the best sitting; hens ; but it must be one in which the
HATCHING. 55
natural conditions of hatching are fully observed. These are — a
lower temperature below than above, as the ground on which the
nest of a hen is naturally made is colder than the breast of the
bird ; a moist atmosphere, similar to that arising from the damp
ground ; pure air, such as the hen is surrounded with when
hatching in the open ; and a well regulated heat above, which
never under any circumstances exceeds the requisite temperature.
I have only seen one incubator that fulfils all these conditions,
and that is the one known as Hearson's. I have carefully tested
it for some years in work, and have found it perfectly successful.
It is so ingeniously constructed, that a rise of temperature over
the amount at which it is set cannot possibly occur, however high
the flame of the gas or lamp may be turned. Its reliability may be
inferred from the fact that a modification of it is used in the
maternity hospitals for delicate newly born infants, and another in
pathological laboratories for developing bacteria and microbes.
Incubators in which the hot air from the lamp, charged with
carbonic acid, and the deleterious products of combustion, is
allowed to pass over the eggs, are necessarily injurious. In these
the impurity of the atmosphere is most detrimental to the young
nnhatched chick, which breathes through the pores of the shell.
In other contrivances the heat is supplied intermittently by means
of boiling water, added twice or thrice every twenty-four hours.
Iii these the temperature varies so greatly as to be fatal to success.
A very interesting description of the system pursued in France,
of hatching ordinary fowls by hen turkeys, was given a few
years ago by Mr. C L. Sutkei'land in his report to the Royal
Commission on Agriculture. In this he says : " At Houdan, in
the Seine-et-Oise, which I visited on the 26th of March, 1880, the
poultry-breeding industry may be seen in full force. Houdan
fowls alone are kept, and it is calculated that the pullets, when
well fed, will commence to lay at five months old. The majority
of breeders adopt the plan of placing twenty-five fowl's eggs under
a young turkey hen. When it is desired that the turkey hen shall
commence to sit, be it in January or June, she is placed in a
suitable box almost entirely covered by a board, and some dummy
eggs are put under her. She is generally kept in the dark. She
soon takes to the dummy eggs, which are then removed, and
twenty-five fowls' eggs are placed beneath her. She is taken off
the eggs once a day to feed, and carefully replaced, not on the eggs
but in front of them, and she then, after the manner of turkeys,
56 POULTRY FOR TABLE AND MARKET.
carefully hooks them underneath her with her beak. When the
chicks are hatched they are removed from under her, to be sold or
sent off at once, or to be brought up by another turkey hen, which
is perhaps an indifferent sitter, and which, in lieu of sitting, has
from eighty to a hundred chicks given her to bring up. Orders
are kept on hand for these chicks (jioussins), which, within twelve
hours of being hatched, are despatched all over France in well
ventilated boxes holding from twelve to twenty each, and at the
following prices, viz. : One dozen, 12s. ; twenty-five, 22s. 5d. ; fifty,
44s. ; one hundred, 80s. The hen turkey which hatches out the
chicks is then provided with twenty-five more eggs, upon which she
at once sits, and this process I was assured was carried on six,
seven, and eight times in succession. Young turkey hens are
preferred to old ones for the purpose. Such a thing as a coop is
rarely to be seen. In the morning, as soon as it is light, the doors
of the sheds in which the young chicks with their foster-mothers —
indifferently sitting turkey hens — have passed the night are thrown
open. The inmates are driven out mostly by old women with long
poles, who conduct the whole lot gently into some covert, or along
the country lanes, where the chicks can find plenty of insect life,
the old ladies sitting with their work and keeping careful watch
over their charges."
The poultry-breeders who have adopted the same system in this
country, speak in unqualified approval thereof. They claim that
not only can a turkey hen cover twice as many eggs as an ordinary
hen, and care for three times the number of chickens, but that
they are more reliable both as hatchers and brooders, and that they
are less affected by the weather.
In France chickens are hatched in large numbers by incubators,
and also by turkey hens, for the purpose of being sold within
a few hours of their hatching, as they travel very fairly in small
boxes, with air holes for ventilation. When we remember that
during the natural hatching months of April, May, and June a
hen can take charge of a much larger number of chickens than she
usually hatches, the sale of young chickens for making up the
deficiency of small broods appears a plan that could be usefully
followed in this country with advantage to both sellers and
purchasers.
OHAPTEE XV.
REARING THE CHICKENS.
The chickens, when hatched, should be allowed to remain undis-
turbed under the hen until the following day. Some persons
remove them as fast as they are hatched, putting them in a flannel-
lined basket near the tire. No plan can be more injurious. It is
impossible to supply the exact temperature of the hen which is
natural to the chickens, and the continued chirping of the young
birds when removed — suffering, as they do, from a temperature
either too cold or too hot — may be regarded as an indignant
protest against the unnatural treatment they are receiving. When
returned under the hen, they will be found to rest perfectly quiet.
They require neither food nor drink at the period of hatching, at
which time the remains of the yolk are drawn into the body of the
chick, and pass into the intestines, constituting the first food of the
young bird ; and any interference with its due digestion by putting
other food into the crop is injurious. The custom formerly pre-
valent, of cramming a few grains of large corn, barley or wheat,
down the throat of a newly-hatched chicken, is as absurd and
irrational as it is possible to conceive. On the day after the
chickens are hatched they will be found to be perfectly dry,
strong, and vigorous. They should then be removed from the
nest with the hen, and placed in some dry, sunny, warm situation ;
and the contents of the nest, which is certain to contain some fleas,
should be immediately removed from the hatching house and
destroyed.
Cooping is generally had recourse to, and where many fowls are
present it may be necessary ; but, there can be no doubt that the
use of coops is far from being an unmixed benefit : a cooped hen
has no power of scratching for the food for her young ones, and
they have to depend altogether upon what is given them by the
owners ; moreover, the ground under the coop becomes foul and
tainted, and during the night the chickens are breathing air which
58 POULTRY FOB TABLE AND MABKET.
is contaminated with the odour of the excrement of the hen and
of themselves. If the coops are closely shut up, as is often the
case, the atmosphere before morning becomes positively foetid. To
rear strong, healthy chickens under the circumstances is difficult,
if not impossible. Then, again, the coops that are constantly to be
seen in farmyards are as ill-contrived as it is possible to imagine.
They are often made like the roof of a house — two ends and one
side being closed, and the other with horizontal bars. It is difficult
to imagine a worse prison in which a hen and chickens could be
confined ; it affords but little protection from the weather, is heavy
to move, and gives the hen no opportunity of scratching. A much
better plan of cooping the hen is to place her in the first instance
in a small movable run. Contrivances of this sort are sold by all
the poultry appliance makers, but they are too expensive for the
ordinary rearer. They can, however, be quickly extemporised by
putting a box or coop in the middle of an unrolled coil of wire-
work, which can readily be moved on to fresh ground day after
day. If put out on grass, it will be found particularly desirable to
imitate the practice adopted so advantageously in pheasant rearing,
namely, to mow the grass for some little distance round the coop,
so that the young chickens are not wetted by the dew before it is
off in the early morning. This should be done some short time
previously, so that the young leaves of grass and tender clover may
be growing for the use of the young birds.
It is frequently, however, inconvenient to use wirework in this
manner, in which case I can strongly recommend the plan of
tethering the hens with chickens, as adopted in many instances by
pheasant rearers. The hen should be fastened by a piece of string
to a peg driven into the ground, and an open, sheltered coop should
be placed near her, under which she can retreat at night and during
rain. The coop should not be put so close to the peg to which
the hen is attached that she can walk round it, but near the limit
of her cord, so that she can pass in and out, but not round the
back. There are very few gardens where vacant spots do not exist
on which hens with chickens may be tethered. Not the slightest
injury would arise from placing one over newly-planted potatoes
which have not yet come up, on spots where beds will be made for
vegetable marrows, or between the gooseberry or currant bushes or
raspberry canes. In fact, there is no large garden without many
open spots where a hen could be pegged down from day to day
without doing the slightest injury to the vegetation. Under these
BEARING THE CHICKENS. 59
circumstances she will be able to scratch the surface of the ground,
and supply her young with the seeds, grubs, worms, and natural
food which is so much more advantageous to them than any
artificial substitute that can be given. The little chickens, even
when two or three days old, will be observed scratching for them-
selves, and the progress that they make when reared under these
conditions is out of all proportion to that made when the hen is
kept cooped up, and the birds are fed on the hard, soiled, dirty
ground.
But there is a right way and a wrong way of doing everything.
If the hen is simply secured by a piece of string tied round her
leg, she will pull against it, and the leg or upper part of the foot
may be injured. She should be secured by a proper- jess, such as
is used by falconers. A piece of thin, flexible leather, about 8in.
or 9in. long by something less than lin. broad, should be taken,
and three short slits cut in it, as shown in the diagram, which is
one-half the required size. The part between A and B should be
placed round the leg of the hen, the slit A being brought over B,
then the end C should be passed through both slits, care being
taken that it goes through A first. It should be pulled right
through, when it will be found to make a secure loop round the leg
of the hen, which she can neither undo by picking nor tighten by
pulling. The cord of the requisite length is then tied to C, and
fastened to a peg driven in the ground, which, as I have said
before, should be put a sufficient distance from the coop to allow
the hen to take shelter in it in case of need. A hen pegged down
in this manner will become perfectly accustomed to the circum-
stances, and Avill proceed to scratch for her chickens in a very few
minutes. The advantages to the young birds from being on fresh,
sweet ground and obtaining natural food cannot be over-stated.
The hen commands a sufficient space of ground to prevent it
becoming soiled, and she can be shifted day after day as often as
required.
When it is noticed how securely the hen is confined to the place
where she is tethered, the most fastidious gardener will hardly
60 POULTRY FOB TABLE AXD MARKET.
object to her being temporarily located in his domain. The fact
is that the hen and chickens will do much more good than harm,
as the destruction of grubs, insects' eggs and larvae, far more than
counterbalances any evil that the birds could possibly do.
Placing chickens under these circumstances on garden ground is
far better than putting then in coops out on the grass, as, although
they get fresh air under these conditions, they are not supplied
with any great amount of insect food.
The first food that is usually given to a young chicken is chopped
hard-boiled eggs. This is a very wasteful method of procedure.
The yolk, it is true, is eaten, but the white in this hard-boiled
condition is not relished, and is consequently allowed to remain
exposed to the sun and air until it gets quite horny. A much
better iAa.ii is to take an egg (one a day will be found quite
sufficient for each brood, unless it be a very large one), beat it up
with a wineglassful of milk, and set it into a soft custard, either
by putting it into the oven or stirring it in a saucepan over the
fire. This is the most advantageous artificial food that can be
given to young chickens, and is certainly preferable to any other
that can be employed. It contains all the nutritive matter of the
egg, in addition to that of the milk, and is infinitely superior to
curd, which is often recommended, as that does not even contain all
the nutritive principles of the milk. I am confident that, by the
use of custard for the first few days, a larger number of chickens
can be reared than by employing any other substance. It is easily
prepared and easily given ; and if the clear eggs that have been
removed in testing those under the sitting hens are used it may be
said to be almost without cost.
At the experimental farm at Ottawa, in the Dominion of Canada,
poultry are reared and made the subject of close observation ; in
the report for 1889 we are informed that experiments were made
as to two methods of feeding the young chickens — one with dry
food composed of hard-boiled egg and breadcrumbs, the other
with bread put into milk and squeezed nearly dry before being
used. This latter, as might be expected, was found by far the
better of the two ; but I doubt whether it supplies sufficient animal
food for the very young birds, and should add to it an egg beaten
up with an equal quantity of milk, and stirred till set over the fire,
or cooked in the oven. The clear eggs removed from the nests
answer well for this purpose.
In situations where ants' eggs can be obtained in quantity, they
REARING THE CHICKENS. 61
may be used, and will be found most advantageous. Gentles, or
flesb maggots, are not unfrequently employed, but unless they have
been well cleansed they are apt to purge the young birds. The
best mode of utilising the dead bodies of any animals is not to
hang them up in the fowl run and allow the maggots to drop on
the ground — an exceedingly offensive as well as undesirable pro-
ceeding— but to allow the animal matter to become thoroughly fly
blown (which it will in two or three days in summer), and then
to bury it in the ground in some situation to which the hens with
their broods have access. The maggots, on arriving at maturity,
endeavour to reach the surface of the ground in order to change
into flies ; the hens discover this, and by continued scratching find
a constant supply of insect food for their young.
In addition to custard, made as above described, bread and milk
may be given to the young chicks, or some of the best sweet oat-
meal mixed with milk ; but I am strongly in favour of using small
whole seeds for the chicks in preference to, or at all events in
conjunction with, meal or grits. In whole seed, such as canary,
millet, dari, or small wheat, the vitality remains, and the seed does
not become rancid or pungent ; but, when crushed, the germ is
killed, and the meal, being exposed to the air, becomes rancid,
unless it is kept exceedingly dry, and in this rancid condition it does
not furnish good food. All those who use that most wholesome
food, oatmeal, for porridge know the difference between freshly-
ground meal and such as has been prepared for any length of time,
even a few weeks. Then, again, a large proportion of the
most nutritive and bone-forming materials exists in the husk of
the seed, which are got rid of when ground into meal. The
objection is sometimes made that meal is more easily digested than
the seeds ; but those persons who say so overlook the fact that the
young chicken is provided with a most efficient mill, in the form of
its gizzard, for grinding up its natural food, and it is more desirable
that this organ should be properly exercised than that it should be
inactive. Untouched grain or seeds have their contents protected
from the air, and the embryo is in a fresh, living, and growing
condition. If these seeds are moistened and exposed to the air,
they do not become rancid like meal or grits, but commence to
grow. The starch of the seed is converted into sugar, and becomes
soluble and in the best possible condition to support the growth of
the young plant or of the young chicken that eats it. These facts
induce me to believe that the use of small seeds, such as canary
62 POULTRY FOR TABLE AND MARKET.
seeds, millet, and dari, is more advantageous than the employment
of oatmeal, often pungent from age, or grits, which were possibly
decorticated some months before, would be. Pheasants and fowls
in a wild state are not supplied with ground seeds for food, and
they are more healthy than such as are reared artificially.
Mr. Bevington, one of the most successful rearers of table fowl,
writes to me as follows : " I give you the greatest credit for putting
me up to using canary seed for rearing my chickens ; I never had
such strong healthy chicks as I had this year. I can safely say I
have not lost 3 per cent, of my chickens hatched under hens. I
have only lost one young turkey, and that broke its leg."
In place of the ordinary oatmeal, which is not always fresh,
Mr. Bevington prefers fresh ground oats mixed with milk, both for
his young stock and for fattening.
I have tried the experiment of rearing chickens without giving
them meal or ground corn at any period of their lives. They had
from the first a little custard for a day or two, with canary seed,
which I regard as a most valuable food ; then dari, which is much
relished, is equally valuable ; and small wheat. The hens were
allowed, as mine always were when practicable, a free range ; and
I never had a finer set of healthy, vigorous chickens, which grew to
a large size, and were most admirable table fowl.
I need not say anything about the supply of green food for the
chickens, for if they are reared under circumstances such as I have
described, they obtain that for themselves, and I cannot conceive
anyone rearing poultry for the markets who would find it desirable
to do so in situations where green food could not be obtained by
the birds when at large.
The keeping of poultry in confined runs may answer very well as
an amusement, and may be so conducted as to furnish an advan-
tageous supply of eggs for home consumption ; but as a mode
of raising fowls, even for the house, let alone for the market,
the idea of chicken-rearing in a limited space is not to be
entertained.
It is needless to say that the young chickens must be well fed,
and at much shorter intervals than the old birds. If chickens are
allowed to run in the open, the attempt to feed them by throwing
down food will attract the other fowls, and they will be trampled
on if the old birds are numerous, and will get a very small share of
the food. This evil may be easily obviated by making a sort of
cao-e of wirework, or laths two or three inches apart, according to
REARING THE CHICKENS. 63
the age of the chicks, and throwing the food for the young chickens
under this. In this way they obtain a due supply of food without
being interfered with by the older birds. A circular wicker coop
will answer the purpose, but it is not large enough. I much prefer
a large wooden cage, with wirework on all sides. This should be
sufficiently light to be moved on to a fresh place each day, so
as to avoid the very objectional though too common practice
of making the birds pick up food off ground soiled by their own
excrement.
When chickens are reared in numbers and kept together at
different ages it will be found very advantageous to assort them
at feeding time, this is easily done by having two rolls of hexagonal
wire netting, one of 2in. mesh, the other of 3in., each of these is coiled
into a ring and the food for the young chickens thrown inside, the
youngest only can get through the smaller meshed ring and feed
undisturbed by the older fowls, whilst the half-grown can pass-
through the 3in. mesh ; these feeding rings can be of any required
size, and can be moved on to fresh ground as often as desired. In
using the two together the food for the youngest chicken should
be thrown into their wire inclosure first, then that for the half-
grown birds, and the old fowls fed outside.
CHAPTEE XVI.
BREEDING FOR THE MARKET.-EGGS.
It is doubtful whether a greater amount of nonsense has ever been
written about any particular subject than that respecting the
supply of eggs to the English market. The large amount of
money that is paid anmially to foreign countries for the eggs
consumed in England is simply a matter of ordinary supply and
demand. We buy eggs from the foreigner because we can obtain
them from him cheaper than we can produce them at home under
existing conditions.
In countries where land is divided up into small holdings, and
there are hundreds and thousands of peasant proprietors and small
farmers, each of whom can keep a moderate number of fowls almost
without auy cost at all, eggs are produced in great quantity, and
consequently are sold by the producer at a very low price. These
are brought by the wives of the producers into the weekly markets,
or are collected by the agents of the egg merchants, and are packed
in chests and shipped to England at prices lower than they can be
produced in this country. It is as senseless to bemoan the amount
that is paid to the Russian and American for the wheat which is
absolutely necessary for the support of our population, as to bewail
the cost of the eggs which are imported into this country.
Short-sighted persons, regarding only the cost of fresh eggs
which the consumer living in large towns must pay, and not
recognising the small sums paid to producers in distant localities,
come to the conclusion that fortunes may be made by keeping
poultry on a large scale. How fallacious such a mode of
reasoning may be is proved by reading the returns of our
markets. In the Western Morning Neivs of March 9, 1891, the
prices of English eggs in the market at Totnes were 7d. to Sd. a
dozen ; at Ashburton, 8d. a dozen ; at Kingsbridge, 9d. ; and at
Launceston, Bodmin, and Padstow, they were stated to be twenty
to twentv-two a shilling. In March, eggs are necessai-ily getting
BREEDING FOR THE MARKET— EGGS. 65
cheaper, as the fowls are daily becoming more prolific ; it is there-
fore obvious that it could not be in the interest of the producer to
keep them on hand — practically, therefore, they are all new-laid.
These prices in the open markets are, to say the least, worthy of
"the consideration of all those who think egg farms likely to be
paying investments. There are certain localities, however, close to
large towns, or near fashionable watering places, &c, where the
demand for fresh eggs at certain seasons exceeds the supply, and
the price consequently ranges high. Under these circumstances it
may be desirable to keep hens for the supply of eggs rather than
for the production of chickens. If eggs exclusively are wanted, I
can recommend no breed better than the common farmyard black
Minorca, avoiding those that have been bred exclusively for fancy
points. If eggs are specially wanted in winter, early hatched
pullets alone can be depended on. If they are required during the
summer and autumn months, pullets hatched in May and June
will answer quite well. Of course, eggs will be produced much
more abundantly if the fowls have a free range and can supply
themselves with grubs, worms, and a large portion of their
own food.
It is singular to notice the difference in the appetite of the hen
when she is producing eggs and when she is not doing so. Thus
the large earthworms that come out on the grass after a mild rain
are greatly sought after and devoured by laying hens, but are
generally refused by them when they are not laying. Of course,
hens cannot be expected to lay or produce eggs without they
obtain the material out of which to form them. It is therefore
very desirable to feed the laying hens well, but the food should not
be too fattening. Maize, therefore, should be scantily employed,
except in winter, when it may form a portion of the dietary. If
the fowls have a free range — which they must have if they are to
be kept profitably — feeding twice a day is amply sufficient. At
these times the laying hens should be well fed, the food, for the
reason before stated, being scattered as widely as possible in the
grass. No scraps or other food should be given at mid-day, as is
often the custom, as this intermittent feeding leads them to hang
about the homestead in place of seeking their own food in the
oj:>en.
Under no circumstances should fowls be kept shut up in the fowl-
house till seven or eight o'clock in the day, as is often the case.
On the contrary, they should be allowed out in the open at day-
F
66 POULTRY FOR TABLE AND MARKET.
break, when they obtain a large number of -worms that have not
yet retreated into the ground.
When eggs alone are required it will be found much more
advantageous to keep pullets and young hens only, as they lay
much more abundantly during their first and second seasons than
they do subsequently. A relay of young pullets, therefore, should
always be provided. It is much better to get rid of the older hens
at Is. or Is. 6d. each than to keep them on as egg producers. I
would recommend, therefore, that all the hens should, at the
end of the second summer, before they come into moult, be
disposed of — eaten, sold, or even given away — rather than kept to
lay eggs.
Care should be taken that the quality of the eggs produced is of
a high character. They should be perfectly clean ; and this can be
ensured by providing nests of clean, sweet straw. If the material
of which the nests are fonned is mouldy, the eggs themselves
acquire a mouldy flavour — most offensive to the consumer ; and the
same result also follows the feeding of the hens on mouldy corn.
If the laying hens are fed upon fish refuse or fish biscuit, such as
is made for dogs, the eggs will acquire a bad flavour, which will
continue for some time after the food is discontinued. So easily
are eggs affected by the food that the yolks of the eggs laid by
ducks that have access to acorns are stained of a blackish colour
by the tannin of the acorn acting on the iron in the yolk. "With
regard to the quality of the eggs as laid by different breeds, I have
never been able to detect any difference. Certain varieties are
sometimes recommended as being the layers of the most delicious
eggs ; but the quality of the egg does not depend so much on the
breed as on the feeding. Take poultry of any breed, feed them
well, under natural conditions, and the eggs will be of first-rate
quality. On [the other hand, give them mouldy food and allow
them to lay in dirty houses, where the eggs become tainted by the
foul atmosphere, and they will be very inferior in character.
To obtain eggs with good thick shells, which render them more
safely conveyed from place to place, it is necessary to provide the
hens with the material of which the shells are formed. For this pur-
pose, in districts where there is but little lime or chalk in the soil,
it will be found exceedingly desirable to crush up oyster shells,
which will be most greedily devoured ; or bones may be given after
being crushed on a block with the back of a hatchet. These
latter are much relished, and are particularly advantageous as
BREEDING FOB THE MABKET—EGGS. 67
furnishing a supply of animal food and calcareous matter at the
same time.
In some places far remote from towns it will be found more
advantageous to preserve eggs for the use of the confectioner or
other large consumer than to force them into the market. Of
course, preserved eggs never command the price of those that are
freshly laid ; but they are of value, and realise a remunerative
return at the time of the year when eggs are most scarce.
Eggs should not be preserved by greasing them, but by placing
them in water made milky by stirring in some freshly slaked lime,
or packing them in dry salt. To ensure a successful result it is
absolutely necessary that the eggs should be put down immediately
they are laid, as those several days old do not admit of being
advantageously preserved.
f 2
CHAPTER XYLL
BREEDING EOR THE MARKET.— CHICKENS.
The best fowls that appear in the London markets are those
usually termed Surrey and Sussex fowls. They may be charac-
terised as being of the old-fashioned Dorking type, sometimes with
and sometimes without the extra toe. They are not bred by the
cottagers for fancy points, but for table purposes. These fowls
are bought by the higglers, who compete eagerly for them, often
bespeaking clutches long before they are fit to take away, and they
are either fattened by them or sold to the fattening establishments.
I have long maintained that for table purposes it is more advan-
tageous to breed cross-bred fowls than any variety that is now
known. I believe that a good short-legged Indian game cock, or
one of the old English fighting game, crossed with Dorking hens, or
a Dorking cock with short-legged Indian or old English game hens,
will produce plumper, heavier, and more meaty birds than the pure
Dorkings of the modern exhibition strain, that are bred for size,
feather, and comb, and not for plumpness of breast. I have been
asked to award the prizes at several of the shows of dead poultry,
including those at Birmingham and the Dairy Show at the Agri-
cultural Hall, and I have always found these cross-bred birds
superior to any others that have been exhibited. At the Islington
Dairy Show of 1890 the first prize in the cross-bred classes, both
for cockerels and pullets, went to birds that were so bred. As I
awarded the prizes, I prefer taking the description of the fowls
that appeared in the Bazaar rather than giving my own account.
Speaking of the cross-bred birds, the writer savs :
" The best pair were a cross between an Indian game cock and a
Dorking hen. They were very white in the feet, very large, plump,
and full of quality. The skin was of a delicate texture and colour,
and they were all round a grand pair of table fowls. ... In
the pullet class the birds were produced from an Indian game cock
and a Dorking hen. They were superb in appearance, colour, and
BREEDING FOB THE MABKET.— CHICKENS. 69
skin, quality of flesh, fineness of bone, and, if we except a slight
tinge in the colour of the feet, we should consider them very near
perfection. They were also admirably trussed, and even more
attractive on this account."
At the Dairy Show of 1891 the prizes were awarded for weight,
quality and plumpness being apparently regarded as of less value,
consequently, in the cross-bred classes fowls bred between the
Dorking and Langshan took the first prizes. With the co-operation
of Mr Titus Barham, the president of the Dairy Farmers' Associa-
tion, I was enabled to make a very satisfactory examination of
several of the fowls that received prizes in the classes for dead
poultry. Mr Barb am and I shared the two pairs of pullets which
took first and second prizes in the cross-bred class. I regarded the
second prize pair, though smaller than the first prize birds, as the
best in the show, and far superior to the larger and coarser
couple which were placed above them. The two pairs were divided
between Mr Barham and myself, so that one of each should be
cooked together and tested on our respective tables, in order that
we might come to independent conclusions as to their merits. The
cross-bred Indian game and Dorking that fell to my share weighed,
as it came from the show, 41b. 12oz.= 76oz. When drawn and
trussed for roasting, the weight of the bird was 61oz. ; that is to
say, it had lost 15oz. of what may be termed offal — say, the feet,
neck, head, and intestines. This loss, disregarding fractions, was
one-fifth of its weight.
The larger pullet, that took the first prize, was bred between
Indian game and Langshan ; its weight was 51b. 6oz. = 86oz. After
being drawn and trussed for cooking, it weighed 66oz., having lost
during this process 20oz. of offal. In round numbers, it had lost
one-quarter of its weight — a much larger proportion than the cross-
bred Dorking. When tested on the table, there could not be the
slightest doubt as to which was the superior bird in quality. The
Dorking cross was better flavoured, more delicate and finer in tex-
ture, than the other — altogether a superior bird in quality and
also in the quantity of flesh upon the breast. Mr Barham tested
his at his own table, and his guests were all of the same opinion —
which decision they came to quite irrespective of any knowledge of
the verdict that was given in my establishment.
The difference in the value of the birds was further shown in the
weight of the bones, which were sepai-ated and weighed one against
the other after cooking. Those of the Langshan cross were larger
70 POULTRY FOR TABLE AND MARKET.
and heavier than those of the Dorking. I do not know any experi-
ment that could have been conducted more satisfactorily. These
two pairs of birds, fortunately for the comparison, belonged to the
same exhibitor, Mrs Pricker. They had both been fattened and
treated in precisely the same manner. They were killed (after
having been duly fasted, so that they were perfectly empty of
food) by piercing the brain through the roof of the mouth, and
the blood had been allowed to escape. They were well plucked
and carefully trussed, so as to make good marketable fowls.
The second prize pair were one of the best-looking couple of pullets,
as to quality and plumpness, that I have ever seen at an English
show, and, had anything but weight been considered, should have
received the medal for the best pen exhibited.
Since testing the merits of these pullets I have tested practically
another Langshan half-breed, also from the Dairy Show. Its loss
in being prepared for cooking was one fourth of its weight. The
bird being older, the quality of the flesh was not equal to that of
the first one examined, and the breast bone had a narrow keel, so
that it could not carry a large amount of flesh.
The Langshan cross may give size, and make large, hardy, useful
chickens for the family, but I do not think that it will ever produce
a first-class table fowl for the market.
In the official report on the dead poultry exhibited for
competition at the show of the Dairy Farmers' Association, 1892,
it is stated : " The judge (Mr. John Baily) is convinced that there
is no fowl equal to the Dorking pure." The value of this remark
mav be inferred from the fact that the medal for the best entry of
dead poultry exhibited in the show was awarded by the same
judge to Miss G-ubbins, of Cork, for cross-bred fowls between the
Indian game and Dorking, bred in the manner I have advocated
for so many years. The success of this lady is not exceptional
With the same strain of birds she has always maintained the very
highest position wherever her fowls have been exhibited.
The cross of the Cochin or the Brahma with the Dorking, though
often giving increased size, neither improves the quality nor the
amount of flesh upon the breast. The result is a coarser bird, well
adapted for home consumption, and possibly for some markets, but
it is never so fine in the bone or so plump in the breast as the
cross with the Old English or Indian game.
Mr. Bevington tells me that he thought he had improved on the
laying qualities and hardihood of the birds as farmers' stock, by
BREEDING FOR THE MARKET— CHICKENS. 71
breeding from these cross-bred Brahma-Dorking hens with Indian
game cocks, as he had many of their chickens doing well in
January, and he regarded them as hardier and faster growing
than those bred from Indian game and pure Dorking, but he
adds :
" Alas, the Brahma cross will come out. and all the birds I have
exhibited this year have lost first honours by reason of the
coarseness which arises from the Brahma. ... I am very
interested in the improvement of table poultry in this neigkbom*-
hood, and, indeed, everywhere. I think I have tried almost every
known breed and cross, and I have now settled down to the firm
conviction that the very best table poultry are produced by
crossing large, heavy, short-legged Indian game two-year-old hens
with active short-legged, plump-breasted Dorking cocks.
" For improving the poultry of the district, the plan I go upon — -
and I find it answers well — is to give out settings of eggs to any
farmers or cottagers who may want them ; and they give me back
one chicken out of every brood when four months old. By this
means they arc put to no immediate outlay — to which they
strongly object ; they gradually improve their stock, and get birds
worth sending to market, instead of the miserable things that are
a reproach and a byword to the couuty of Essex."
I have seen very good results from crossing the ordinary Malay
with the Dorking, and have had occasion to give prizes to such
buds, but the Malay is too long on the leg to breed a very first-class
table fowl, and is certainly not to be preferred to the Indian game
for this purpose.
The Azeel, or true Indian fighting cock, is, perhaps, the most
plump and meaty bird that exists. Its drawbacks, from its com-
bativeness and want of fertility, I have already spoken of, but the
excellence of its cross with the Dorking cannot be denied. Where
it is employed, an Azeel cock should always be run with Dorking
hens, the size being in all cases dependeut on that of the female
parent.
Many of the recently introduced breeds are vaunted by their
owners as possessing first-class qualities as table fowl, but it is
remarkable that they rarely put in an appearance at the competi-
tions of dead poultry that are held, and, when they do, they are
usually relegated to a very inferior position. The best of the
Asiatic breeds as a table bird is undoubtedly the Langshan, but a
farmer would be very ill-advised who would breed it for market
72 POULTRY FOR TABLE AND MARKET.
purposes. The same may be said of the recently manufactured
breeds, the Wyandottes, Orpingtons, Plymouth Rocks, and others.
The latter, though useful all-round birds for family purposes,,
are not sufficiently plump, and too brilliantly yellow in the skin,
to make good table fowl ; consequently they are not esteemed by
the fatteners.
The preparation for the market varies considerably, according to-
the circumstances under which the fowls are reared. Some persons
may find it more advantageous to sell their birds privately, others
to the higglers who buy for the fatteners ; and in some instances it
will be more profitable for the rearer to fatten his own birds.
It is needless to remark that chickens intended for the table
must be kept in good condition during the whole of their lives.
No subsequent treatment can make the poorly fed chickens, which
are brought over in large numbers in crates from Ireland for the
use of the fatteners in England, into table-fowl at all equal in
merit to those which are reared by the peasants and small farmers-
in Sussex and Surrey, and are bought at a much higher price by
the fatteners. The latter are generally good table breeds, which
cannot be said of the Irish birds ; but, setting that advantage
aside, there is a great superiority in the chickens that have been
well fed and developed during every period of their lives, over the
half-starved, tough, and skinny birds which have been treated
differently.
The determination of the age at which chickens should be shut
up in order to be fattened for the table is a point of very great
importance, if first-rate results are required. The general rule is
to shut up the cockerels " as soon as their tails begin to turn " —
that is, as soon as the two long central tail-feathers overtop the
straight feathers of the tail — and the pullets before they have laid.
The object of these directions is evident ; as soon as the young
birds begin to exercise their reproductive functions, they cease to-
be first-class table poultry. It is quite true they are edible, but
they are not birds that one would wish to place before a gourmet ;
nor will they command the highest price in a good market ; and*
what is still more to the point, not only is the quality lessened, but
the quantity, in proportion to the amount of food consumed, is
seriously interfered with, for the birds cease to grow or fatten
at the rate they did previously.
It is not generally known that by keeping each sex not only
apart, but absolutely out of sight of the other, both the cockerels
BREEDING FOB THE MARKET— CHICKENS. 73
and pullets may be gi'own to a much greater size than usual
■without the quality of the flesh being deteriorated. If the young
cocks are separated as soon as their sex can be distinguished, and
removed out of the sight of the hens, they do not become hard and
coarse, but grow to a larger size than they otherwise would. I am
not recommending that they should be shut up in small runs or
pens, but that they should be kept quite apart, and even out of
hearing of the other sex. If this is done, the severe and painful
operation of caponising is quite unnecessary ; in fact, it is not
generally performed, even on the finest birds exhibited at the fat
poultry shows held in France.
Keeping the sexual proclivities in abeyance by separation is
sometimes practised with regard to GTold or Amherst Pheasants.
These birds, as every rearer of them is aware, are most pugnacious,
the males killing not only one another, but also the females.
Nevertheless, a score of Gold cocks in full j^lumage may be kept
in one inclosure, affording one of the most gorgeous sights in the
animal kingdom, provided only that the whole of the males were
put together whilst chicken, and had never been allowed to associate
with the hens. Under these circumstances they live peaceably,
but the introduction of a single hen would be the signal for the
commencement of a " battle royal," from which it is probable
not a single bird would emerge alive.
If a corresponding plan is adopted with poultry, the young cocks
can be kept until late in the season, or even far into the new year,
without deterioration, but, on the other hand, with great improve-
ment as regards size.
The same remarks are true, mutatis mutandis, with regard to the
hens. A fowl that has laid an egg is herself edible, but cannot for
a moment be compared to a pullet that has not laid ; the quality,
tenderness, and sapidity of the flesh of the latter are greatly
superior. Hence those pullets that are intended to be fattened
for the table should not be allowed to run promiscuously with the
other birds in the poultry vard ; if first-class poulards are required,
they should be separated.
It may be said that this separation of the sexes in poultry is too
much trouble to be generally followed. This may be true, but in
many places where large numbers of poultry are reared for home
consumption or the market, it could be done without any great
increase of trouble, and the improvement in the birds would
amply repay that which wTas necessary.
74 POULTRY FOR TABLE AND MARKET.
To those who rear for their own tables, and have facilities for
carrying these suggestions into effect, I can strongly recommend
them; hut they must take the strictest precautions that the birds
are separated before they have manifested any sexual proclivities.
This advice has been confirmed by the experience of breeders
wh<> have evidently raised Game fowls for the table or for other
practical purposes. Mr. J. S. Turner, writing on the subject in
the Stockkeeper, says :
" I noticed Mr. Tegetmeier's article, and it struck me some
of vour readers might be interested in our experience of the
subject. My father has kept black-red Game for years — the old-
fashioned short-legged sort. They art- splendid table fowls, much
meat and little bone, and when killed and hung in their feathers
for a week or two equal pheasants. We do not care to begin
killing them till November, by which time the young cockerels
would probably have saved us the trouble by killing each other if
left with the hens. We don't wait for their tails to turn in, but as
soon as we can distinguish cockerels from pullets, the former
are all sent to an off farmstead, where there is not another chicken
within a mile of them. We had about sixty this year. A few of
the best we generally sell for breeding, the rest we kill as wanted,
and hang from a fortnight to six weeks. We began killing this
vear the beginning of November, and they Avere as tender as spring
chickens tip till the end of March. For any man who has an off
place for cockerels there is no better breed than the old Game
as table fowls."
No stronger confirmation of the utility of separating the sexes
could be required. With regard to Game fowl, whicft are so
admirable as table fowls for home use, though rather small for the
market, the great objection has been their tendency to fight ; this,
however, is entirely obviated when the cockerels are kept away
from the hens. In contrast with the good quality of the separated
<rame cockerels, Mr. Turner stated that a number of Andalusian
cockerels running with the hens, though younger than any of the
Game, " were as tough as leather " when brought to table. This
would not have been the case had they also been separated, as
thev would have been tender, although far inferior in plumpness
and flavour to the Game.
An interesting experiment was tried after the Islington Dairy
Show held in 1890. After the awarding of the prizes, Mr Tim.
Bevington, one of the successful competitors, secured no less than
BREEDING FOR THE MARKET— C HICK EX S. 75
eight of the prize birds, in order to test their merits on the table.
These birds were carefully cooked, and constituted the jnices de
r-'sistance at a dinner which was given at a well-known literary
club. The whole of the birds may be described as very magnifi-
cent specimens of first-class table poultry. Their size may be
inferred from the fact that one of the members of the club, seeing
these roast chickens on the table, inquired, " What are you six
fellows doing to want eight turkeys for your dinner r " As one
of the party who carefully tested the merits of these birds, to which
I had previously awarded the prizes, I can testify to the fact that
in quality of flesh the cockerels of Mr. Bevington, that had not
bee a put up to fatten, but that had been separated from the hens
in the manner recommended, were certainly superior in succulence
and flavour. The birds were fat enough to take prizes in a very
severe competition, and I certainly preferred them to others, which
I had placed higher in the prize list, as I had to award the prizes
to them as market as well as table poultry. It is hardly necessary
to say that they were well bred, being crossed between the Dorking
and Indian game.
The value of the cross between Indian Ganie and Dorking has
been maintained for some years by Mr. C. L. Sutherland, who rears
all his table fowl from these breeds ; but, as the Indian Game hens
are not remarkable as layers, he prefers running Dorking hens
with Indian Game cocks, when he finds the great majority of the
chicken come with white skin and legs. These cross-bred birds are
close-feathered, handsome fowls, good sitters and mothers, and,
like most cross breeds, very good layers, the eggs being of a pale
buff colour.
CHAPTER XVIII.
FATTENING.
The house in which poultry are fattened should be free from
draughts of cold air, and kept at a moderately warm and uniform
temperature. Quietude being especially desirable, the house
should be so situated as not to be accessible to the fowls at liberty;
and it should be partially darkened, if possible. It is also impor-
&
Fig. 1.
Fig. 3. Fig. 4.
Details of Fattening Coop.
Fig. 1. End view of Coop and Trough. Fig. 2. Sliding Bars in place of doors.
Fig. 3. Feeding Trough. Fig. 4. End of Bottom Bar, showing its shape.
tant, in the highest degree, that it should be perfectly dry, as it
is scarcely necessary to add that a fowl suffering from cold and
inflammation is not likely to fatten.
The fattening coops should be 2ft. 6in. or 2ft. 8in. high in front,
and about 2ft. deen, with a boarded roof sloping backwards ; the
FATTENING. 77
"back and ends should be closed, and the bottom made of flat bars
with rounded edges, 2in. wide at the top and narrower beneath, so
as to prevent the droppings sticking to the sides. These bars
should run from end to end of the coop (not from back to front),
and they should be 2in. apart on the upper sides. The front of
the coop should consist of rounded bars 3in. apart, and two
rods connected together below, and sliding through holes made
in the roof, will be found more secure than a door. Before
the front should run a ledge to support the feeding troughs,
which are best made by joining two pieces of wood at a right
angle and securing the ends by letting them into grooves in
stout end pieces.
The fattening coops should stand on legs to raise them a con-
venient height from the ground, so that the droppings may fall
on a loose board and be removed daily ; or each may have a
shallow drawer underneath, which is daily filled with fresh earth.
In cold weather the front should be covered up with matting or
some other warm material at night.
The length of the coop must depend on the number of fowls
that it is required to contain, but it is never advisable to place
more than ten or a dozen together, and if strange fowls are put up,
care must be taken that they agree, as otherwise the constant
excitement would prevent their fattening.
It occasionally happens that fowls are infested with lice to such
a degree that they become irritable and refuse to fatten ; in these
cases, a little of the flowers of brimstone dusted under the feathers
before cooping them, immediately expels the vermin.
The fowls when first cooped had better be left some hours with-
out food. By this time they will have become very hungry, and
will eat with avidity ; whereas, if food is placed before them on
their first imprisonment, they often refuse it for some time. The
best food for them is coarse oatmeal or ground oats mixed with
scalding milk ; barley meal is good, but not equal in its fattening
properties to oatmeal ; this is evident from the fact that the latter
contains 61b. of fat in every hundred, barley meal only 21b. Maize
meal is not advantageous, for it produces an abundance of yellow,
oily fat not desirable in a market fowl. The birds should be fed at
regular intervals. The first meal should be given very early — at
five o'clock in the summer, at daybreak in winter ; the second at
noon, the last just before dusk. Discretion should be exercised in
the quantity given. It should be fully as much as the fowls can
78 POULTRY FOB TABLE AND MABKET.
eat, and no more. Should any be left from one meal to another,
it should be thrown out to the other fowls, the troughs scalded out,
and fresh food given. Great care should be taken to prevent the
troughs, becoming sour. In order to do this they should frequently
be scalded and dried in the sun.
If it is considered desirable to use any animal fat, the hard
trimmings of loins of mutton will be found most advantageous.
They should be chopped up and mixed with the meal before the
scalding liquor is poured on ; or, still better, may be boiled in the
liquor before it is poured over the meal. A supply of clean water
and some coarse sand or fine gravel are necessary. Many persons
omit the latter ; but, as the due grinding action of the gizzard
cannot go on without it, it is most conducive to the proper digestion
of the food. In places where the millers prepare the finest flour,
usually known as " pastry whites," they have a very superior kind
of fine middlings or thirds. This is frequently sold, in London at
least, under the name of " coarse country flour." It is cheaper than
the best oatmeal, and may be in part advantageously substituted
for it. The most convenient mode of using it is to bake it until it
becomes quite hot, when, if cold water is poured on it, it becomes
a crumbly mass. The common sharps or coarser middlings will
not answer, as they contain too small a portion of nutriment, and
purge the fowls.
If it be thought fit to follow the practice of cramming, the oat-
meal should be mixed rather stiff, and then rolled into crams about
2in. long, and as thick as a man's little finger. Six or seven of
these are then taken, dipped in milk or water, and placed in the
back of the mouth of the fowl, which is held in the lap, the mouth
being opened^with the aid of the left hand. In this manner the
birds should be fed three times a day, care being always taken to
ascertain that the last meal has completely passed out of the crop
before the next is given. Sometimes, in cramming, the food will
become hardened in the crop. In this case, no further food
should be given, but some lukewarm water should be poured
down the throat, and the mass loosened by gentle pressure with
the fingers.
At the present time, when the process of cramming is followed,
especially on a large scale, it is usually done with the aid of some
machine, semi-liquid in the place of solid food being used. Several
machines have been devised for this purpose. The most recent,
and that which seems to combine all the advantages, is that made
FA TTENING.
79-
by Hearson. It consists of a reservoir for the food, with a small
pump below, which is worked by the foot of the crammer. The
apparatus is so constructed that the exact amount of food given X< -
the fowls can be regulated by a stop, so that over-filling the crop
is avoided. The birds that are to be fatted are generally fed in
coops, as previously described, for ten days or a fortnight before
being crammed. When in use the cramming machine is filled with
Hearson's Cramming Machine.
semi -liquid food, wheeled in front of the fattening coop, and the
fowls are taken out successively and held under one arm ; the
bird's bill is opened and a soft flexible indiarubber tube passed
about six inches down the gullet, and as much soft food is dis-
charged into the crop as is sufficient. The bird is then returned
to the cage and others dealt with in the same manner. So expert
do the crammers become, that several hundred birds an hour can
be fed in this way by one man. Mr. Bevington informs me that
he has had the most successful results from using this machine
with ground oats (not oatmeal), mixed thin with scalded skimmed
milk.
In place of cooping the fowls, another plan is frequently
adopted on the Continent, in which each fowl is tethered by
both legs in a separate compartment. These compartments are
opeu below at the back, so that the excrement of the fowl falls
out of the cage on to the floor. The fowl should be tethered bv
80 POULTRY FOR TABLE AND MARKET.
a brail on each leg, as before described for securing the bens with
chicken.
Unless there is a demand for very fat fowls, it will not be
found necessary to cram them, as usually, after a fortnight to
three weeks' feeding, those that are allowed to pick up their own
food will become sufficiently fat for all useful purposes. The
chicken that are to be put up to fatten should be from twelve to
fourteen weeks old in the summer, and rather older in the winter,
when they do not grow so rapidly. If they are required to be kept
still longer, it is absolutely necessary, to prevent them becoming
tough and hard, that the sexes should be separated at an early
age.
The mode of killing the fowls when they are required varies in
different parts. Abroad, the bird is generally killed by either
thrusting a sharp knife backwards into the brain through the roof
of the mouth, or by cutting the large vessels of the throat ; but in
England the almost universal practice is to dislocate the head of
the birds required for food. The bird is taken by the hocks with
the left hand, and the head held in the right, the back of the bird
being upwards. In order to dislocate the head from the neck,
it is suddenly bent backwards, the neck of the fowl being forcibly
stretched at the same time. To do this more effectually, the left
hand should be held against the left thigh, and the right hand with
the head against the right thigh, almost close to the knee. In this
position both hands are steadied, and by widening the distance
between the knees, whilst the head is bent back, it slips instantly
out of the socket. The act is instantaneous, and there is no pain to
the bird, inasmuch as the spinal cord and all the large nerves are
divided, as well as the arteries and veins ; in fact, after the operation,
the head is only connected with the body by the skin of the neck.
Practically it has been beheaded, and all sensation is instantly at
an end. It is quite true that muscular contraction exists for
several minutes, consequently, if the fowl is put down it flutters
about and gives persons the idea that it is still alive, so much so,
that some very unsatisfactory prosecutions have taken place for
the punishment of persons plucking fowls alive, for as the feathers
come out with much greater facility immediately after the fowl is
killed, the pluckers, having killed the bird, immediately proceed to
denude it of its feathers, and this may be done before muscular
contraction ceases, although the head of the bird is separated
from the body.
FATTENING. 81
There is no doubt that this is the most humane manner of
tilling fowls, as it is instantaneous, which is not the case if they
are killed by bleeding.
When carefully plucked the wings should be twisted behind the
back, the hocks placed together, and the bird placed on its back
with the head and neck hanging down, so that as much blood as
possible may drain into the neck.
If thought desirable, the fowls may be placed in such a manner
that a board may be put on the top of them, and the breast
pressed flat, but plump fowls do not require this, and are not
improved by the operation. Under no circumstances should the
breast bone be broken, as the value of the fowl is much deteriorated.
Should the legs be dirty, they should be washed before the fowl
is placed in position.
A fowl killed for the market should not be hung up and
allowed to stiffen into a shape that cannot be readily put into
marketable form afterwards.
Before killing, it is absolutely necessary to fast the fowls from
fourteen to sixteen hours. It is therefore better that they should
be killed early in the morning after a night fast, than in the
■evening, when they have been feasting all day. Fowls, therefore,
that are intended to be killed early in the morning, should have
both food and water taken away from them not later than four or
five o'clock the evening before ; the intestines will then be free of
food, and the birds will keep a much longer time than if the crops
and bowels are full.
CHAPTEE XIX.
SHOWING AND TRUSSING DEAD POULTRY.
At our agricultural shows, the utility of the birds is, in almost
all cases, entirely ignored. Prizes are given, not to poultry as
animals useful for food, but as fancy stock ; feathers, combs, and
markings being estimated in preference to qualities which are
appreciated in the poultry market or on the table. When prizes
are offered for dead birds, regulations as to the manner in which
they should be exhibited are seldom issued. They are allowed to
be trussed in such a mode that their bad qualities may be, as far as
possible, concealed, and their good ones exaggerated. In the
French mode of trussing the choicest fowls, the back is usually
exhibited in place of the breast, the hocks being tied together over
the centre of the breast, and three or four of the quill feathers of
the wings, which are left in the pinions, are pulled between them.
This method, however, is hardly likely to come into fashion in this
country.
At English shows the fowls are generally exhibited undrawn,
but trussed and skewered. The toes are tightly drawn in by the
sides of the breast, and are pulled together by strings which are
passed through the body or across the back. This is done with
the object of forcing up the flesh on the breast, so as to make the
fowl look much plumper than it naturally is. By this contrivance
a poor fowl may, to an inexperienced person, be made to look
much better than one that is really superior to it. No such
trussing should be allowed at a show of dead poultry. The hocks
should be merely tied together, and the fowls shown without the
breast-bone being broken, as seen in the engraving. The prizes
should be awarded for the goodness of the fowls, and not for the
skill of the exhibitor.
All fowls should be shown in precisely the same manner, and
the regulations should state that they should be exhibited
" plucked," but not drawn or trussed. They should be displayed
SHOWING AND TRUSSING DEAD POULTRY.
83
on a raised shelf, with the head hanging down in the position
represented. It may be said that the fowls would look much
more attractive if dressed for the table ; but if so exhibited the
Dead Fowl for Show
prize would be awarded for the skill of the trusser rather than
for the goodness of the fowl.
The second engraving represents a fowl as trussed for roasting
Fowl Trussed fok Eoasting.
according to the plan pursued for the table of the highest lady in
the land. The manner in which this is done is so superior to that
g 2
84 POULTRY FOR TABLE AND MARKET.
ordinarily adopted that it is worth a detailed description, the mode
of operating being that which is followed by Messrs. Bellamy, of
Jermyn-street. The dresser takes the dead fowl, and cuts across
the skin at the back of the neck, about 2^ inches from the body.
The knife is then passed under the skin, down towards the junction
of the neck with the body, making a flap out of the skin of the
back of the neck. This exposes at once the bones of the neck,
which are then cut across where they join the body. The crop can
then be readily extracted, and the skin of the front of the neck
quite cut across, when the head and neck are at once removed.
What may be regarded as a great improvement in the
preparation of a fowl for the tabic is then generally followed
by Messrs. Bellamy. This improvement consists in the removal of
the merrythought, which is done almost with a touch, the point of
the knife passing between it and the flesh of the breast, when it
may be taken away without even the smallest quantity of meat
being attached to it. The object gained in the removal of this
bone is to allow the flesh of the breast to be cut away more
conveniently, and in longer slices, in carving.
After the removal of the head and neck, the finger is passed into
the interior of the body, and all the structures that can be reached
by it are loosened, the finger being passed round the interior as far
as possible; this shoidd be throughly done. The fowl is then
rested on the table, tail upwards, and a somewhat deep and large
incision is made straight across the body, between the tail and
vent. This cut enables the finger of the trusser to be placed round
the bowel, a loop of which is pulled out, and the knife, being
placed under the loop, cuts out the vent without the slightest diffi-
culty, leaving an opening sufficiently large to enable the fingers to be
passed into the interior to seize hold of the gizzard, when, if the
loosening in the front has been properly accomplished, the whole
of the interior of the fowl, including the intestines, liver, and
heart, are drawn away in one mass. This method of operating is
much more expeditious, more cleanly, and infinitely more workman-
like than that usually followed. Should the fowl have been one of
extreme fatness, a little rolling of the body under the hand before
beginning to draw it suffices to loosen the gizzard from the large
mass of abdominal fat which is occasionally present in the
interior.
To complete the trussing of the fowl in the manner shown in the
figure, a trussing needle 8 inches long, threaded with thin strong
SHOWING AND TRUSSING DEAD POULTRY. 85
string, is requisite. The legs being brought into the position
shown in the drawing, the needle is passed through the leg, close
up to the joint, then through the body and the leg on the other
side, and pulled out; the fowl is then turned over, and the needle, still
carrying the string, is passed through the joint and the pinion
of each wing, when it conies out close to where it was first put into
the fowl, and the two ends of the string are tied tightly together,
keeping the legs and the wings in position. To secure the ends of
the legs, the needle, with the string attached, is passed through the
body close to the backbone, over the leg, and back through
the body under the end of the breast-bone. It is then tied,
and the fowl presents the appearance shown in our figure, the
knots in the two strings not being shown by the draughtsman.
The ends of the toes are cut off, and it is customary with the best
poulterers to remove the extreme point of the pinion and the small
fold of loose skin which is attached to it before trussing, in order
to prevent these becoming scorched in cooking.
It is needless to speak of the superiority of this mode of trussing
over that usually adopted. No skewers, which have to be removed
before it can be served on the table, are left in the fowl, nor are
any large incisions made in the flesh, letting out the goodness
of the meat. The strings that are used are cut and drawn
away without trouble, and do not interfere with the carving of the
fowl. It is needless to say that the breast-bone should never be
broken, as it is impossible to carve a bird satisfactorily when that
has been done.
The ease and rapidity with which a fowl may be prepared for
roasting in this manner is remarkable, and its neat and attractive
appearance not the least advantage.
The preparation of a fowl for boiling is usually performed in a
somewhat more intricate manner. The method adopted is some-
what different, and is represented in the following engraving.
I am also indebted to the very skilled operator at Messrs.
Bellamy's for a careful demonstration of the method pursued,
which may be described as follows : The fowl, when taken in hand
after having been plucked, is, in the first instance, treated as
one required for roasting. The extreme tip of the wing and the
thumb pinion are cut away, as well as the loose strip of skin alono1
the under side of the wing, which is left after the removal of the
quill feathers. The proper mode of removing the neck, crop, and
merrythought, and drawing the fowl, is the same in trussing for
86 POULTRY FOB TABLE AND MABKET.
boiling as for roasting, but the subsequent proceedings are very
different.
The fowl having been drawn, the fingers are passed from
behind under the skin at the side of the breast, which is separated
and loosened from the flesh round the joints of the leg, right down
to the hock. This is done on both sides, and so effectually that by
laying hold of the shank the fleshy part of the leg can readily be
pushed up under the skin, but before this is done, a cross cut is
made at the back of the leg lin. above the hock, and another about
l|in. below the hock, but this is made in the front. These cuts
are for the purpose of dividing the sinews and enabling the foot to
be twisted right round, so as to come at the back of the fowl.
Fowl Trussed for Boiling.
Then, holding the foot in the hand, the hock is pushed through
the first cut made in the skin, which is drawn down over it, and it
disappears altogether from view. The shank is then cut across where
it projects beyond the skin, and the foot is in this way removed,
and, the hock being under the skin, no portion of the leg is visible.
The fowl is then turned over, and it is customary to crack the
shoulders by striking them between the wings and the spine with
the back of the knife. This enables the wings to be brought
closer to the body when the trussing is completed.
The long trussing needle, which is threaded with fine string, is
then passed through the leg at the back of the knee from one side,
and through the corresponding part of the leg on the other, and
through the pinion and joint of each wing. This brings the string
to the same side where the needle was first passed through the leg,
and the two ends are tied tightly together, thus securing the l^gs
and the wings firmly to the body with one tie, as is shown in the
SHOWING AND TRUSSING DEAD POULTRY. 87
left hand side of the figure. In order to secure the ends of the
legs which are thrust under the skin a second string is passed
through the body above the hock (which must he felt for, as it
cannot he seen), then under the breast-hone to the hock on
the opposite side, and brought round behind the back and securely
tied. The tail is then, as it were, pushed into the interior of the
body, and the fowl, ready for boiling, appears as is shown in the
figure.
The description may appear to include numerous details, but it
is not difficult to follow the steps with a fowl in hand, and once
learned it is not easily forgotten .
OHAPTEE XX.
TURKEYS AND GUINEA FOWLS.
In suitable situations, where there is a good range and a dry soil,
turkeys may be kept with great advantage. It is useless, however,
for anyone to think of keeping them unless the conditions are
favourable. A free range is absolutely indispensable to their being
kept to profit, and a clayey damp soil is fatal to success.
The best breed of turkeys to employ is that known as the
Cambridge, which has been crossed with the recently imported
American. This fresh blood has induced not only increased size,
but much greater hardihood of constitution. Many breeders have
failed entirely in profitable turkey rearing through bi-eeding in-and-
in from the same stock year after year.
In selecting a stock bird for breeding for the market, a turkey
cock of extreme size should not be chosen. The large birds bred
and fatted for exhibition purposes are often unfertile, and apt to
injure the hens. A dozen hens may be allowed to run with one cock
turkey. The hens, if young and well fed, will commence laying
very early in the year, when the first eggs may be set under large
broody hens, such as Cochins, Brahmas, or Dorkings. The nests
are often concealed in hedges and other places where it is difficult
to discover them ; but it is not always desirable to let the hen sit
where she makes her nest. On the eighth or tenth day the eggs
should be tested as directed for those of fowls, and only those that
are fertile replaced. The chickens are hatched at the end of the
fourth week, on the twenty-eighth day. The nest, of course, should
be made upon the ground, with the same precautions as those recom-
mended for fowls. It is always advantageous to sit two, or, still
better, three hens at the same time, so that, should several of the
eggs prove barren, those that are fertile can be given to one or
two of the hens, and fresh eggs supplied to the other. If turkey
hens are employed to sit on the eggs in preference to fowls, it is
exceedingly important to see that they leave the nest every day, as
TURKEYS AND GUINEA FOWLS. 89
they are apt to remain on their eggs too long and starve them-
selves. It is not desirable to sit the hens after the end of June, as
late-hatched chicks rarely do well. In France, where a much
larger number of turkeys are reared than in this country, the eggs
produced late in the season are utilised for food, numbers of them
being sent over to England. At the time of hatching, no inter-
ference whatever with the chickens is desirable. They should
be left alone until the next day. No attempt at feeding them
should be made, as during the first twenty-four or thirty hours they
are digesting the yolk, which is drawn into the intestines at the
period of hatching. On the following day after they have been
hatched they may, if the weather is fine, be placed out of doors in a
sheltered situation, such as an open shed — the ground, if not
perfectly dry, being covered with ashes or chaff.
For the first food of the young chickens, egg-and-milk (custard)
will be found to be much better than chopped egg, which is
generally given to them ; and it may be mixed with bread dipped in
milk and then squeezed dry. They require at first to be fed about
every two hours, beginning with daylight in the morning and
finishing the last thing at night. The egg-and-milk should be
continued for two or three weeks without being stinted, unless
ants' eggs can be obtained in abundance, which will be found a
valuable addition. In addition to egg-and-milk, fresh meal-and-
milk can be given.
Turkeys at all periods of their lives eat a much larger amount of
green food than fowls. They are especially fond of milky plants,
such as dandelion and lettuces ; and it will always be found most
advantageous to grow a number of lettuces and let them run to
seed, using them in the milky condition for the food of the young
turkeys ; or chopped dandelions may be given. If well fed on
natural food, and bred from strong, healthy parents that are not
related, young turkeys are not so delicate as is generally imagined.
If the weather necessitates keeping them indoors, they are subject
to cramp ; and therefore it will be found better to keep the hen, if
she is cooped, under a large dry open shed or on a lawn or meadow,
with the grass closely mown for some considerable distance around,
as has been adopted in pheasant i*earing, and also for fowls.
With turkeys, as is the case with pheasants, it is most desirable
to use fresh ground for reai-ing every year. If the birds are
int'e&ted with gapes one year, it is almost useless to try and rear
others on the same ground the following season. When the
90 POULTRY FOR TABLE AND MARKET.
weather is dry, it will be found very advantageous, although it is
contrary to the usual custom, to allow the hen a free range during
the warmer parts of the day. If she is well t*vi\ she will not drag
the young turkey chicks about until they become tired; and the
scratch that she gets for them is of immense advautaee. Unless
extremely well fed and nourished, reared on dry soil, and bred
from healthy parents, turkeys are subject to cold i'« the head,
which rapidly develops into roup, in which state it is exceedingly
infectious. They are said also to be very delicate a little under
three months old, when they begin to show the red heads which
distinguish the cocks from the hens ; but, if well fed, they will not
be found to suffer at this period. When they are fullv fledged,
turkeys become very hardy. They will roost in trees during the
latter part of the year without injury. When kept in a house, it
will be found very desirable to separate them from the common
fowls. The perches should not be more than 3ft. or 4ft. from the
ground, otherwise there will be, as with fowls, the continual fight-
ing for the highest places, and bumble fe«-t from leaping down on
t-> the hard ground The building should be ventilated, and kept
scrupulously clean, but the birds should n<>t be subjected to a
draught. The stock birds must be well fed in winter with two or
three feeds a day. Ground oats or barley meal, with boiled potatoes,
will be found much more advantageous than feeding them
exclusively on whole corn.
In France, after the harvest is gathered, flocks of joung turkeys
are driven on to the stubbles, usually in charge of a girl, who, with
a Jong, light pole, drives them out in the morning and returns with
them at night. Here they feed on the gr->en vegetables to which
they are so much addicted, and on the corn which would otherwise
be wasted, and for some weeks obtain as much food as they can
eat, without cost, and with advantage to the farmer.
Turkeys may be so fed as to be always ready for the market.
To be fatted, they should be kept in a shed where several can be
together, as a single bird will not fatten. Here they should be
supplied with plenty of green stuff, a fair amount of grit, and
oat, barley, or buckwheat meal mixed with milk. The food should
be varied, so as to keep up the appetite. !Maize meal is sometimes
used ; but it always produces fat of a yellow colour and soft, oily
consistence, instead of the white, firm character which is so much
esteemed in the market.
In suitable situations, where there is sufficient amount of space,
TURKEYS AND GUINEA FOWLS. 91
and where due attention can be given to the rearing of the young
birds during the first few weeks of their lives, there is no breed of
poultry that pays better than turkeys; but they must be carefully
attended to from the first, and well fed during the whole of t^eir
lives. If in good condition, they realise about Christmas tin>e a
much larger sum per pound than fowls ; and they also have this
advantage, that they can easily be sold privately or without being
sent to market, and so the profit on the sale does not go into the
hands of the middleman.
Guinea fowls may be kept with advantage in many situations,
especially where the soil is dry, the aspect warm and sunny, and
there are trees or dense bushes in which the birds can roost. They
realise very fair prices in the markets in the spring, when ordinary
game is going out of season, and chickens are not to be obtained.
They are, however, not general favourites with farmers, some
objecting to the continuous cry of the hens, " come back," '• come
back," others to the fact of their almost always laying away in
concealed nests, and to their not hatching until late in the season,
when their chickens are too delicate to withstand the cold. Their
noise cannot be obviatf d, but by taking away the eggs as they are
laid, onp being always left in the nest, a very large supply may be
obtained, as the hens generally lay on until Juh or August before
desiring to sit.
If young Guinea fowls are required, the eggs should bp placed
under some small broody hens in April or May. The chicks, when
first hatched, are exceedingly elegant, being covered with striped
down, which is set off by th^ red colour of the legs and beaks, and
tuey are rendered still more attractive by their extreme activity.
In rearing young Guinea fowls, great care should be taken to feed
them at very brief intervals of time, as they suffer much from even
a short deprivation of food. No diet will be found more advan-
tageous than the egg and milk prepared in the form of custard.
This should form a part of every meal for the first month, along
with oatmeal mixed with milk and grits, and canary seed ; and as
the young broods grow up small tail-wheat, boiled vegetables, and
potatoes may be added to their dietary. If ants' eggs can be
obtained, it will be found very advantageous to employ them.
Guinea fowls do well in dry coverts, but they are not desirable
where pheasants are preserved, as they drive the latter away.
CHAPTER XXI.
DUCKS.
As usually kept, it is very doubtful whether ducks eau be regarded
as profitable to the farmer or small producer. There is, however,
no doubt that, as they are reared for the London market in the
neighbourhood of Aylesbury, they can be produced most profitably.
The rearing of ducks in that district has been developed into a
systematic industry, the rules of which are well understood and
cai-efully followed. The ducks are bred in the early season, raised
under most favourable conditions to ensure their rapid growth,
killed when the nourishment that has been bestowed on them has
produced the best results, and before it is employed in the pro-
duction of new feathers, and forwarded to the London markets at
the season wheu the demand is greatest, and the prices conse-
quently are highest.
The objections to duck keeping, as ordinarily followed, are
many. In the first place, inferior breeds of ducks are frequently
kept — small coloured varieties, which do not arrive early at
maturity, and which, when plucked, from the dark colour of
the down, are not as attractive in the market as the white Ayles-
burys, which alone are reared by the experienced duckers. The
superiority of this breed is very convincingly demonstrated by Mr.
Henry Digby in his very practical treatise. Writing of the
Aylesbury, he states :
" The great size to which they attain at an early age, and the
excellent flavour of their flesh, is unequalled by any other breed. It
is verv prolific, hardy, and a thorough forager ; it thrives in almost
any climate or on any soil, and, being of a pure white, it has
advantages over those varieties which have many colours. For
where colour and markings are a consideration, size, constitution,
and laying propensities have been sacrificed for these characteristics,
thereby causing degeneration."
As Mr. Digby is a most successful rearer of various breeds of
DUCKS. 93
ducks for exhibition, his testimony as to the effect of breeding for
colour may be taken as fully substantiating the statements I have
made as to the result of breeding for the poultry shows in place of
rearing useful stock for the table and market.
Farmyard ducks are often allowed to remain on the water at
night, when the greater number of their eggs — -those that are
produced before the ducks become broody — are dropped in the
water, when they sink, and their presence is not known until some
months afterwards, when, having become rotten, they rise to the
surface. The young ducks in most farmyards are allowed to go on
the water when they do not grow rapidly, and they are not killed
until they are far advanced in their moult, the nourishment that
they have taken for the last few weeks having been devoted chiefly
to the production of new feathers. The breeder of ducks for the
market should act on the knowledge that the birds can be made to
weigh as much at eight or ten weeks as they do at four or five
months, and that they should be killed and sent to market when
they command the highest prices.
To rear ducks successfully, the large white Aylesbury should be
the breed selected. It may be not unprofitable crossed with the
Pekin, if eggs are chiefly required. The store ducks should be well
fed (which is most conveniently done by putting their oats or other
coim in a tub of water) during the winter months, so as to induce
laying at the earliest possible season. It is much better to allow
the stock birds access to water and a free range, so that they
provide themselves with a large amount of animal food in the form
of grubs, worms, &c. ; but they must be carefully shut up at night,
or the eggs will be laid in the water and lost. Anyf old sheltered
pigstye will answer for the purpose of keeping the drake and half
a dozen ducks that will be found profitable to the small holder. It
may be littered with short straw, dead leaves, or any other refuse
of the sort. It is needless to say that it must be kept clean. No
nests are necessary, as the eggs will be laid at random about the
pen ; but if the ducks are in good health and have a free range,
the shells will be found so firm that they are not broken. These
eggs should then be set under hens ; in the duck-rearing districts
large broody hens are exceedingly valuable in the early season, as
there is a great demand for them for the purpose of hatching
ducks' eggs.
The system pursued in the neighbourhood of Aylesbury has
been so well described by Mr. J. K. Fowler, a very practical
94 POULTRY FOR TABLE AXD MARKET.
breeder, that I cannot do better than quote his words on the
subject. Speaking of the Aylesburys, Mr. Fowler first describes
the enormous quantities that are sent to London in the spring, a
ton weight of ducklings, from six to eight weeks old, being not
unfrequently taken in one night from the Aylesbury district by
railway to the metropolis, where they realise very high prices. He
then goes on to say that the duckers — as the breeders are called —
are mostly provident labourers, who do not grudge giving their
time and attention to their young broods as long as there is a good
demand. The system by which this industry is carried on is very
simple. Almost every cottager maintains a set of ducks, usually
four or five and a drake. These they keep in an outbuilding
attached to their dwelling, and in some cases even in the cottage
itself. From them the duckers collect the eggs in the early part
of the season, when they command a very high price. Iu Decem-
ber, Mr. Fowler says, a» much as 12s. a dozen will be given for the
eggs of good ducks, the purchaser taking the chance of their being
fertile. The ducks are mostly allowed access to the river which
runs through the town, being distinguished by marks of paint of
different colours. At night they are driven into their respective
homes, well fed and comfortably housed, and the eggs which are
laid before the morning are set as soon as possible under large
hens. The ducks themselves are never allowed to sit. The hens
are usually set in small hampers, or, what is still better, round
cheese boxes, placed on the ground. The nest is often made of
ashes ; but mould which is kept slightly damp during the whole
sitting is better. Keeping the nest damp is far preferable to
sprinkling the eggs with luke-warni water. The period of incuba-
tion is twenty-eight days.
When hatched, the young should be left under the hen until
they are well dried, and quite strong enough to stand. Many
scores of ducklings are lost from being removed too early from the
nest. In a few days, three or four broods may be put together
under one hen, who is quite able to take care of them.
For market purposes, Mr. Fowler informs us that the treatment
of the young ducks is as follows :
" They are not allowed to go into any water, but are kept in
hovels or the rooms of cottages, each lot of thirty or forty separated
by low boards. It is no uncommon thing to see 2000 to 3000 all
in one establishment. They are kept very clean and dry on barley
straw ; their food consists of hard-boiled eggs chopped fine and
DUCKS. 95
mixed with boiled rice and bullock's liver cut up small. This is
given to them several times in the day for about a fortnight or
more. "When they are cajmble of consuming more, they are fed on
barlev meal and tallow greaves, mixed together with the water in
which the greaves have previously been boiled. My poultryman
also uses horseflesh to mix with their other food."
The above constitutes all that is necessary to proeuce early
ducklings for the table. It is needless to say that these birds are
never allowed to go out of their pens, but are fed many times a day
with as much as they can possibly eat ; and they always have a
trough of water by them, with some gravel or sand at the bottom,
which is necessary to the proper digestion of the food. The great
object of the ducker is to get his birds on as rapidly as he can, so
that they attain the greatest possible weight before they begin
to moult — this they do from about ten to twelve weeks old — when
the nourishment taken is employed in the production of feathers ;
consequently, if a duckling is kept over that age, it does not gain
in weight, and decreases in quality. The profit on ducks can only
be made by sending them to market at the proper time, namely,
when from eight to ten weeks old ; for, if they are kept till they
are seven or eight months old, they are inferior for table purposes,
cost more to produce, and yield less to the producer. It is no wonder
that, managed in this way, most farmers say, " Ducks do not pay."
The ducks sent to the London markets are either killed by
cutting the large vessels of the neck, or by thrusting a knife
through the roof of the mouth into the brain — both of which
methods allow of the escape of a large quantity of blood from the
body, and render the flesh whiter than it otherwise would be. Mr.
Digby gives it as his opinion that ducks should not be bled to
death, as from the loss of the blood the flesh becomes too dry. He
recommends dislocating the neck, as practised with fowls, as the
quickest method and the most merciful.
It is not necessary for me to say anything about the coloured
breeds, as they cannot be plucked so as to look as attractive as the
Aylesbury, and it is doubtful whether they mature with as great a
degree of rapidity.
For home consumption many persons prefer ducks that have
more flavour and are firmer in flesh than those which are killed
before moulting; in which case the ducklings should be allowed to
go into the water to obtain a large proportion of their own food
(which consists of worms, spawn, young fish, tadpoles, &c.) and not
96 POULTRY FOR TABLE AND MARKET.
killed until they are well through their moult. In these cases,
where the wild flavour is required in the ducks, the Aylesbury is
surpassed by the smaller breeds, such as the black (so called) East
Indian, the wild duck, or cross between them and any other variety.
The difference in the customs of the French and English in the
matter of ducklings is most marked. The French appreciate full-
flavoured ducks in the spring, these they term Caneton de Rouen.
These birds do not in the slightest degree correspond with the
Eouen ducks of our poultry shows, being small in size, with a
certain proportion of white in the plumage ; they appear identical
with the birds which have been exhibited in England under the
name of Duclair ducks. When sent to market the skin is dark-
coloured and most unattractive looking. The difference, in
appearance, between the English Aylesbury and the French
Caneton de Eouen depends not only on age, but greatly on the
method of killing. The Caneton de Eouen is killed by suffoca-
tion, the mouth and nostrils being closed. The result is that
no blood escapes from the body, the skin becomes dark and dis-
coloured, but the flavour of the bird is retained to a much greater
extent than is the case with our Aylesbury breed ; in fact, the
Caneton de Eouen eats like a large and tender wild duck. I
have never seen these birds exhibited for sale in England, although
they are imported for the use of the large hotels celebrated for
their Continental cookery ; but, should there be any large demand
for them in the London market, there should be no difficulty
whatever in their supply from English sources.
In buying stock ducks, good size should be looked for ; but I
most especially caution anyone who wishes to breed for market
purposes against the purchase either of old specimens or of large
exhibition birds, whose bellies trail on the ground; such birds are
ruptured from over-fatness, and both ducks and drakes are per-
fectly useless for stock purposes. Even Mr. Digby, an enthusiastic
exhibitor, writes :
" For the market I should never think of breeding from large-
framed parents, but would select my breeding stock from a good
prolific strain, and about — or a little under — 51b. weight when in
store condition ; for from such stock it is easy enough to get duck-
lings to weigh 41b. to 51b. each at ten weeks old."
Advantageous as breeding ducklings for the market may be when
conducted on a proper system, it is obvious that it can only be so
to those who lay themselves specially out for the pursuit.
CHAPTEE XXII.
GEESE.
Ik situations adapted for geese there is no doubt that they are
profitable, but to do well they require access to water and a good
grass range. They should have an outhouse to themselves, plenti-
fully supplied with straw with which to make nests on the floor.
These should be partitioned off from one another. A goose
generally lays about a dozen eggs before wanting to sit. The
house should be so arranged that the birds have free entrance
at all times of the day ; and the sitting geese may have food,
such as oats, put for them in a deep pan of water. This has
the double advantage of preventing the food being soiled by
the dirt and droppings on the ground and from being devoured
by sparrows.
The period of incubation is about thirty days if the goose sits
closely, but it may extend over that period. The sitting goose
generally leaves home once a day, when she should be well fed, if
food is not always kept near her ; and it is desirable also that she
should have access to water at this time.
Many practical breeders of geese prefer to hatch their eggs
under large hens, giving four or five eggs to each — the nests being
always made on damp soil.
It is not desirable to interfere with the bird at the period of
hatching. The goslings should remain in the nest for at least
twenty-four hours before being disturbed or fed. The next day
they can be removed and supplied with cut grass or green turf,
and oatmeal made into a paste with milk or water. It will be found
very desirable not to allow the young birds to depend on the
supply of food they get for themselves, but to give them oats, which
are best given in water, night and morning. If they are kept short
of food during the period of growth, it cannot be expected that
they should make fine birds. Mr. Digby, a very successful rearer
H
98 POULTRY FOR TABLE AND MARKET.
of large geese, is in favour of more stimulating feeding ; he writes
as follows :
" My first feed consists of hard-boiled egg, a bit of suet, and a
few breadcrumbs chopped up together. Of course, there is, or
ought to be, moderation in the supply of such highly nutritious
food. Eggs and bread are only necessary for the first three or four
days ; a liberal supply of fine sharp grit and green food of some
kind is absolutely necessary from the first. Sufficient clean water
to drink during the first week or ten days will be all they require.
After that time a swim will do them good, but do not drive them
into the water ; let them take to it of their own accord. When
the goslings are three or four days old, diminish the quantity of
eggs or discontinue their use altogether. I prefer giving for six or
eight days. A bit of good sound wheat, a few groats, or a bit of
tip-top barley once or twice daily affords a healthy change. Now,
as size is a great consideration, it will be beneficial to give goslings
that kind of food containing a large percentage of bone-making
material. Fine sharps — or middlings, as it is often called — should
be used along with the biscuit meal. The advantages of this,
method of feeding are many, especially if such a method is supple-
mented by good pasture. It is a mistake to suppose that goslings-
will thrive as well on poor, coarse land as they will on rich, well-
cultivated soil."
When large enough the young geese may be fattened, which is
usually done by shutting up a number of them together in a clean,
dry, warm place, with an unlimited supjdy of oats in water for
about three weeks. It has been suggested by a very practical
writer to turn them on to the pond the day previous to killing, for
the purpose of allowing them to wash their feathers ; but if they
are kept on clean straw this will be hardly necessary. All food and
water should be taken away from them for at least twelve hours
before they are killed.
Where there is good convenience for keeping geese, and they can
obtain a large proportion of their own food on the pasture land and
stubble, there is no doubt that they can be made to pay well, and
the whole stock can be kept in a productive condition much longer
than is the case with any other poultry ; in fact, geese of ten or
even twenty years appear to be quite as prolific as those that are
younger.
In purchasing geese for farmyard stock it is not desirable to
buy over-large exhibition specimens ; they are, undoubtedly, not
GEESE.
99
as productive or profitable for market birds as those of fair
average size ; in fact, many of the large show birds are useless
for stock.
The Toulouse or grey geese may be advantageously used to cross
with the white Embden, or with the common saddle-backs, as
giving increased size and prolificacy.
The vignette at the end cf this chapter shows a useful form of
portable poultry house, designed by Boulton and Paul, well adapted
for housing fowls on the stubble after harvest, when they can
obtain their own food for some weeks ; but it is obvious that such
houses could not be employed in all localities.
h 2
CHAPTER XXIII.
DISEASES OF POULTRY.
In a work devoted to the profitable rearing of poultry for the
market, it might be expected that something should be written
respecting the diseases to which these birds are subjected. Although
I may be considered as somewhat prejudiced in favour of treating
diseases remedially, inasmuch as my original pursuit was the
medical profession, I am free to confess that I do not think that
the small farmer, or poultry rearer, need trouble himself greatly
about the treatment of fowls when ill. If the healthiest and most
vigorous only are bred from — if they are reared under natural con-
ditions, kept clean, fed on wholesome food, not overcrowded, and
given free and unlimited ranges — there will be very little, if any,
disease amongst them ; and if any does appear, it will be found
much more satisfactory immediately to remove, kill, and bury, or,
still better, burn, the sick birds, than to attempt to treat the disease
remedially.
The object of the poultry breeder for the market should be to
rear the healthiest and most vigorous birds, capable of growing
rapidly into profitable fowls. This can never be accomplished if
invalid birds, that have been cured by remedial agents, are kept.
Nevertheless, a few words respecting the prevention of the more
common diseases may be expected from me.
Roup, in many places a very fatal disease, arises from exposure
to cold and wet, and spreads rapidly in overcrowded and dirty
poultry houses. In advanced cases there is no cure. The birds,
whether male or female, having been once affected, are useless for
stock, and had better be got rid of instantly, as the disease is
undoubtedly contagious.
Gapes, which arises in chickens from the presence of small,
parasitical worms in the wind pipe, appears to infect the ground.
There is little doubt that the eggs or germs of the parasite are
present in the small worms, mollusks, or insects that the chickens
DISEASES OF POULTRY. 101
and young turkeys eat. There is only one practical mode of
preventing this destructive disease, and that is rearing the birds on
fresh, uncontaminated ground.
Cramp, -which seriously affects birds bred from weakly stock at
unnatural seasons of the year, and in damp situations, can be rarely
cured when it appears, but can always be prevented by attending
to the sanitary conditions.
Fowl Cholera is a disease fortunately little known in this
country. It is one of a most contagious character, and, where it
occurs, by far the cheapest and most effectual remedy is the
destruction of all the affected birds, and the complete purification
of houses, nest places, coops, sitting-boxes, &c, by washing with
lime wash, strongly scented with carbolic acid.
Dr. E. Klein, in his most valuable work on the diseases affecting
birds,* gives a description of this disease as occurring in France and
Germany, where it produces great devastation. I am not aware
that the fowl cholera has ever been prevalent in England, but I
reproduce the symptoms from Dr. Klein's work, as it is quite
possible that it may be introduced from the continent.
Fowl cholera occurs rapidly, within a day or a day and a half
after infection, the symptoms being purging of thin greenish
mucoid evacuations, great unwillingness to move on the part of the
bird, and quietness. The fowls affected refuse food, become drowsy,
and die in one, or at most two days. On examination after death,
the internal organs are found to be congested with blood, which is
crowded with bacilli or the germs of the disease. These bacilli also
exist in the evacuations of the fowls, and thus contaminate food
thrown upon the ground. Rabbits and pigeons, as well as fowls,
are liable to this disease, which can be produced in them by
inoculation with the blood of an infected animal.
The Poultry Far3i Disease (the Orpington disease, or Fowl
Enteritis of Dr. Klein). In the same volume Dr. Klein published
an account of his researches respecting an exceedingly fatal and
destructive disease prevalent at a Poultry Farm in Kent. The
account is so instructive, it demonstrates so perfectly the folly of
keeping large numbers of fowls on the same ground, and shows the
excessively deleterious effect of feeding the birds on ground soiled
by their own excrement, that it is exceedingly desirable that the
* •' The Grouse Disease, Fowl Enteritis, and Some Other Diseases Affecting
Birds.'' By Dr. E. Klein, M.D., F.R.S., Lecturer on Anatomy and Physiology
at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. London: Macmillan and Co. 1892. 7s.
102
POULTRY FOR TABLE AXD MARKET.
main facts should be brought before poultry keepers. Dr. Klein
informs us that, in 1888, Mr. W. Cook had on his poultry farm,
then at Orpington, in Kent, on about two acres of land, a fatal
epidemic, by which he lost between March, 1888, and March, 1889,
over 400 birds. Nearly 200 died during March and April, occa-
sionally six per day. TJntil twenty-four to thirty-sis hours before
death the fowls appeared perfectly healthy. The first indication
of the disease was diarrhoea of thin, yellow, frequently fluid
evacuations; the birds were quiet, but never sleepy, as in fowl
cholera. On the next morning, or, latest, the day following,
the animals were found dead. Post-mortem examination showed
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Bacilli in a ilrop of mucus, from the intestines of a fowl with Poultry Farm Disease.
Magnified 1160 times. From Dr. Klein's photograph.
the heart filled with clotted blood, the liver enlarged, soft,
and brittle ; the spleen constantly enlarged twice or more, soft,
and flaccid. The serous covering of the intestines, and particu-
larly the mucous membrane lining the csecal appendages, were
highly charged with blood. The lower bowels contained yellow
fluid faecal matter; in the csecal appendages there was much
mucus.
DISEASES OF POULTRY. 103
The blood contained a species of bacillus, which may be cultivated
on nutritive gelatine. A tiny droplet of the heart's blood rubbed
over the surface of gelatine, and kept for two to three days
in a warm temperature, produced from fifty to two hundred colonies
of bacilli.
Inoculations with the blood of a fowl that had died of the
disease were made under the skin of healthy fowls, pigeons, and
rabbits. The pigeons and rabbits remained well, the fowls all died.
After five days, severe purging of yellow, thin evacuations set in,
and on the seventh day the inoculated birds were found dead.
In the contents of the bowels the same bacilli were present
in very large numbers, as shown in the engraving. It was
further proved by experiment that fowls to whose food the bowel
discharges of a diseased fowl were added became smitten with
the disease. In Dr. Klein's own words, " Under natural condi-
tions, the fowls, just as in fowl cholera, contract infection most
probably by picking up food from a soil tainted by the evacuations
of birds affected by the disease." From this it follows, that once
let a diseased fowl appear in a poultry yard, the disease would
rapidly spread to the healthy fowls, these latter picking up their food
from a soil tainted with the contagium voided in the evacuations
by the diseased fowl ; the smaller the area of the poultry yard, the
more rapidly would the disease spread. In the epidemic at Mr.
TV. Cook's, that was the subject of Dr Klein's inquiry, about 400
to 500 fowls were kept on about two acres of ground. It is clear
that this area would in the course of a few months become
strongly tainted with the contagium, and there was every chance
given for the new comers to contract infection. In such a case,
nothing short of energetic measui'es would stop the spread of the
disease. TVhen once it has made its appearance, every diseased
bird ought to be immediately removed, killed, and burnt, and
the healthy birds shifted into an altogether new ground. The
ground on which the diseased birds had been kept ought to be
railed off, well dug up, and thoroughly disinfected with quick-
lime. The animals ought to be carefully watched, and on the
first sign of disease destroyed, and the ground again treated as
above. Only by attention to the separation of the healthy from
the diseased birds, the immediate removal and destruction of the
latter, and the thorough disinfection of the land, can the spread of
the disorder be checked.
It is exceedingly satisfactory to know that the disease is not
104 POULTRY FOB TABLE AND MABKET.
spread through the air, for Dr. Klein experimented on two lots of
fowls separated only 18 inches by wire netting. One lot was
inoculated by the Orpington disease, all became ill on the fifth day,
two-thirds died, as did two other fowls that got access to them ;
whilst the other set, which were not inoculated, were not affected,
though only 18 inches apart.
There can be no doubt that the poultry keepers of the kingdom
are deeply indebted to Dr. Klein for the demonstration of the
cause of death in these overcrowded fowls, who infected each other
by eating food soiled with excrement, containing millions of bacilli,
one of which is capable of producing the disease in the healthiest
fowl. In the following chapter I have entered at length
into the subject of poultry farming ; but whether the weak
enthusiasts will be converted from the error of their ways, even by
Dr. Klein's demonstration that the excrement of one fowl will
infect and destroy a flock of 500 birds on two acres, is doubtful.
Such poultry establishments are started either by enthusiasts who
will neither listen to reason or experience, or by adventurers, who
see in the gullibility of their dupes a means of making a livelihood.
The Orpington disease has unfortunately been prevalent in
Ireland, having been introduced by the fancy fowls sent into the
congested districts. In the report of the Congested Districts
Board for 1893, it is stated :
" Upon the appearance of a widely-spread fatal disease among
poultry in the congested districts, and, as some of the newly-
imported cockerels died, the Board requested Mr. Tegetmeier, a
celebrated authority on poultry, to visit the localities to which the
cockerels had been sent. He reported that the disease was ' Fowl
Enteritis,' and that it was practically incurable, while he at the
same time indicated how the spread of the disease might be
checked. Many of the cockerels, however, in his opinion, died of
' hardship,' the districts being ill adapted to support pure-bred
fowl, such as had been supplied. He strongly recommended that
in future only farm-bred birds should be purchased, and not those
bred by poultry fanciers for show purposes."
Scurfy Legs. — The occurrence of scurfy legs in fowls, more
especially in the feather legged varieties, is well known to all
poultry fanciers. They depend on the presence of minute parasites
(Sarcoptes mutatis), which live under the scales of the legs and
upper pai*t of the toes, where they set up an irritation, causing the
formation of a white, powdery matter, that raises the scales and
DISEASES OF POULTRY.
105
forms rough crusts, which sometimes become very large. When
these crusts are broken off and examined with a microscope, or
even a good hand lens, they will be found to be filled with the
female parasites, generally distended with eggs. The crust itself
may be compared to the crumb of dry bread ; but the parasites
are to be found only in those parts which are kept moist by the
skin. They appear to cause great irritation to the bird.
This disease is propagated by infection. It is seen in fanciers'
yards where the poultry are closely confined together. The disease
has been found affecting turkeys, pheasants, partridges, and even
small birds in aviaries.
Scurfy Leg Parasite
(Sarcoytes mutans).
Magnified 10(> diameters.
Male.
Female, distended with eggs.
The treatment in fowls is very simple. The legs may be soaked
in warm water, and the crusts removed, and the legs washed with
carbolic soft soap, as made for dogs ; and the coops, nesting places,
perches, all cleansed with lime wash, scented with carbolic acid.
Great care should be taken not to employ as mothers any hens
affected with the disease. If a Cochin or other hen in the slightest
degree affected with scabies is employed, it is obvious that, as
young birds are covered by her, the parasites can readily pass from
her to the chicken, and the disease becomes disseminated.
CHAPTER XXIV.
FALLACIES OF POULTRY FARMING.
Theee is no one subject connected with poultry rearing on which
so great an amount of misconception exists as that of poultry
farming. The general belief that prevails is that the vast
number of eggs, amounting xo many millions annually, which
we receive from abroad are niostlv produced in poultry farms.
It is difficult to account for this belief ; it is utterly baseless; there
are no poultry farms, properly so called, in any part of the Con-
tinent. But vast numbers of small peasant proprietors and small
farmers keep poultry, and the eggs are collected by the agents of
the merchants or sold by the wives of the peasants themselves in
the village markets which exist in most parts of France. If any
confirmation were wanted of this fact, I might quote from the
report of Mr. C. L. Sutherland, one of the assistant commissioners
appointed under the Agricultural Interest Commission. In his
report, which was presented to both Houses of Parliament, he
states as follows :
" It is a commonly received idea in England that there exist in
France huge poultry farms, where fowls are kept by several
hundreds ; and it has been over and over again urged on English
farmers to adopt this poultry farming on a gigantic scale, as some
sort of means of alleviating the present depression, and enabling
them to make money. A long acquaintance with the chief French
poultry breeding districts, as well as answers to inquiries I have
from time to time made on the subject, enable me positively to
deny the existence of such establishments. The greatest number
of heads of poultry that can be kept profitably on a single farm
varies from 200 to 300. If a greater number than this is kept the
ground becomes poisoned, and it is found impossible to rear
chickens. "Whenever large poultry farms have been started in
England — as, for instance, at Bromley, in Kent — they have failed,
and chiefly owing to the above reason ; a reason perfectly well
FALLACIES OF POULTRY FARMING. 107
known to and understood by all practical poultry keepers. The
manner in which so many fowls are reared and eggs produced in
France is as follows, independently, of course, of climatic
influences, which must be held to be of some little account.
Every peasant proprietor, every hardier, with perhaps two or three
acres of land, keeps fowls, the produce from which is collected by
dealers, who scour the country. In this way a very large number
of fowls in the aggregate is kept, but they are scattered about all
over the country."
Some years since attent-on was directed to pou try -keeping in
France by the publication in this country of an account of a
poultry establishment near Paris, in which the birds were fed
on horseflesh. This ridiculous hoax would not have been worth
notice had it not been reproduced and commented upon in many
of our public papers. The account was reprinted iu many periodi-
cals, such as the Gardener's Chronicle, the Marl- Lane Express, the
various agricultural journals, &c. So high an authority as Mr.
Cuthbert S. Johnston. F.R.S , published the following article
respecting it in tbe Mark Lane Express. Mr Johnston stated:
"The French practical philosophers certainly know how to
make the most of things Thus M. de Sora has the power of
making hens lay every day in the year by feeding them on horse-
flesh. The fact that hens do not lay eggs in winter as well as in
summer is well known, and the simple reason appears to be that
they do not get the supply of mea«", which they obtain in the warm
season from worms and insects.
" He soon ascertained that a certain quantity of raw mincemeat
given regularly with other food produced the desired result ; and,
i-Miniiiencing with only some 300 fowls, he found that they
averaged thi first year some twenty-five dozen eggs iu the 365
days. The past season he has wintered, thus far, about 100,000
hens, and a fair proportion of male birds, with a close approxima-
tion to the same results. The consumption of horses for this
purpose by M. de Sora has been at the rate of twenty- two per
day for the last twelve months. As one item alone in this
immense business, it may be mentioned that in the months of
September, October, and November last M. de Sora sent nearly
1000 dozens of capons to the metropolis."
Mr. Johnston said these details are worthv of our serious con-
sideration. It is difficult to imagine how such a ridiculous
statement could have received anv consideration whatever without
108 POULTRY FOR TABLE AND MARKET.
the absurdity of the hoax being apparent ; and jet it was generally
crediied, and persons made journeys from the United States, and
Australia, to learn the details of the mode of working adopted
at this supposititious establishment. To any persons having even
a very slight practical acquaintance with poultry matters, such a
statement as that the " 300 fowls averaged the first jear some
twenty -five dozens, or 300 eggs in the 365 days," carries its own
refutation When we take into consideration the fact that a
certain portion of the fowls must have been cocks, and that time
must have been lost during the periods at which the hens
were brooding and recovering from their annual moult, it is
evident that during a considerable portion of the year the hens of
these numerous towls must have laid two eggs a nay each to make
up this fabulous average. Again, the statement that the fowls
were fattened for the market at the end of the fourth ;ear, is < ne
that coul.1 never have been reproduced by any person having any
knowledge of the subject. A fowl of four years of age is beyond
any ordinary power of mastication.
The Latin proverb which says that " truth is great and will
prevail," is familiar to all, but the vitality of a he is equally
remarkable. It is now a quarter of a century since this ridiculous
De Sora hoax was fully exposed, but it is still believed and
credited. In that well-conducted trade journal the Grocer, of
Nov. 2, 1889, is an article on the number of imported eggs, which
includes the usual recommendations of those who are ignorant of
the subject as to the establishment of poultry farms. In this
article we are told of two brothers in the neighbourhood of
Glasgow, who erected a large poultry farm with steam apparatus,
and accumulated a handsome fortune by their enterprise. It is
needless to say the exact address was not given. We are then told
of a poultry keeper near Liverpool who, by an expenditure of 30Z,
realised 701. a year profit. Neither the name nor address of this
poultry keeper is given. It is needless to analyse the balance
sheet, because it contains the usual absurdities ; but the conclusion
of the writer we fully agree with, namely, that it " obviously
proves the gross ignorance which prevails respecting poultry
keeping."
I should not have alluded to this article, inasmuch as the false
conclusions in it possess no novelty, but that the De Sora hoax is
quoted as a fact. We are informed in it that in Paris, many years
ago, a gentleman named M. de Sora enjoyed the respectable income
FALLACIES OF POULTRY FARMING. 109
of 175,O00fr. annually, derived from a huge poultry farm in the
suburbs. " The suburbs " is a vague term ; but it might have
struck the editor of the Grocer that the locality of an institution
from which an income of 7000?. a year was derived from poultry
might have been indicated.
It might also be imagined that the demonstration of the non-
existence of the De Sora establishment for feeding poultry on
horseflesh would have sufficed to prevent the promulgation of
any more of these ridiculous canards. But such has not been
the case. In the early editions of the " Practical Poultry
Keeper," the concluding sections were devoted to the reproduction
of a French account of a poultry establishment at " Charny, a
picturesque village near Paris." The reader was informed that
1200 laying hens, with a due proportion of cocks, were lodged in
the first floor of an elaborate building, with a verandah, railway,
lifting tackle, boilers, stoves, hatching room, &c. Of this building
a perspective view, sections, elevations, ground plans, &c, were
given in some ten or a dozen engravings, and the writer most
definitely stated that the establishment was " one of the most
complete and perfect of its kind in France, and which has been
conducted for several years with the most eminent success." And,
moreover, he did not think " its arrangements can be further
improved." I need not enter into any detailed examination of
the plans proposed, because a very slight acquaintance with really
practical poultry keeping would have sufficed to convince anyone of
the impossible nature of the arrangements. For example, each of
the four hen houses into which the upper floor of the building is
arranged is said to be designed for 330 fowls, the dimensions being
16ft. by 15ft. ; the nests and ascending ladders occupy the end
walls, and perches consist of eight planks, each 10ft. long — in
other words, there is rather less than one foot of perch for every
four fowls to be accommodated !
An example of the evil effects of the publication of such mis-
statements may be mentioned. A capitalist informed me that,
having read this account, he was induced to expend a very con-
siderable sum in carrying out the arrangements ; that he went over
to Paris expressly to visit the poultry establishment that I have
described. On endeavouring to procure a conveyance to Charny,
he could find no one who knew any place of the name near Paris.
The Geographical Dictionary failed to give any aid. Determined
not to be foiled, he gained access to the Minister of Agriculture,
110 POULTRY FOR TABLE AND MARKET.
under whose authority this precious account was supposed to have
been originally published. His inquiries for the locality of Charny
and of the poultry farm elicited no definite information ; he
ascertained, however, the name and address of the author of the
account, whom he next visited, and on again inquiring for the
locality of Charny, and the particulars of the establishment, which
had been said to have been carried on for years with eminent
success, the Englishman received the astounding answer, " Mon-
sieur, c'est imagination."
These ridiculous accounts have led, unfortunately for the
promoters, to the attempted establishment of numerous poultry
farms in England, every one of which has resulted in disastrous
pecuniary failure. The rearing of poultry has been tried in this
country under every variety of conditions. In some places extensive
ranges of buildings have been erected in accordance with various
plans, but the result has always been the same. The number of
defunct farms is very great. One of the largest of these, as far as
regards the size of the building and the expenditure of capital, was
at Bromley, in Kent, where many thousand pounds were lost before
the attempt was given up by the promoters. This was succeeded
by two others at Wimbledon, both of which passed rapidly out of
existence. A third large poultry farm was established in Hereford-
shire, most florid and fictitious accounts of which were issued by
the promoters. Another undertaking was proposed to be started
at Shenley. I have before me a large number of prospectuses of
poultry farms, none of which were ever worked successfully ; some,
of course, were obviously merely Stock Exchange swindles. One of
these did me the honour of putting my name upon their prospectus
as one of the auditors. I need not say that it was done without my
knowledge or permission.
One of the poultry farms that was established under the most
favourable conditions, was that founded at Rushford, on the estate
of Sir Robert Buxton, on light sandy soil, which was regarded as
admirably adapted for the purpose. Sir Robert entered into the
scheme with much interest, and met the promoter in a most liberal
manner. The tract of land consisted of 114 acres, inclosed by wire
fences. There was good cover, and in some parts a number of furze
bushes, under which the fowls could shelter. An incubating house
was built by Sir Robert, from the promoter's own designs, which
was described as a brick structure, admirably adapted for the pur-
poses for which it was intended. Eight incubators, each holding
FALLACIES OF POULTRY FARMING. Ill
250 eggs, 2000 in all, were described as being in full work.
Ample provision was made for the artificial supply of heat for the
rearing of the chickens, which were not to be overcrowded on the
land, and were not to exceed from 60 to 100 per acre. The breeding
birds were to be located in runs separated by wirework, and not
more than from a dozen to twenty kept together. The manure was
to be carefully collected and utilised. There was to be an intelli-
gent poultry keeper, two labourers, their wives, and a boy under
him. Although the poultry was chiefly to be bred for the market, a
careful selection was to be made of the best stock. "When this
proposal was first brought before the public in 1882, I criticised it
adversely in the Field, and said that I should like to see the balance
sheet at the end of two years. This request was regarded as an
impertinent interference on my part with the business of a private
individual, more particularly as I said that I had never known
any poultry farm, on whatever conditions it was started, that was in
existence at the end of three years. It is difficult to imagine a
poultry farm conducted under more advantageous conditions. The
land was dry, well adapted to pheasants, and therefore to poultry ;
the rent was exceedingly low, the capital expended was that of the
landed proprietor, who entered warmly into the scheme, and if ever
a poultry farm could have succeeded it should have been that at
Eushford. My opinions regarding its failure were regarded as
utterly unfounded, but at the end of two years this venture, which
seemed so promising to those who were not fully acquainted with
the subject, was dispersed by the hammer of the auctioneer.
In the Field of January 10, 1891, I published the following
comments on au article by the Hon. A. H. Cathcart, on " Chicken
and Poulrty Farming in Grermany," which appeared in the Royal
Agricultural Society's Journal, recently published. Mr. Cathcart's
article was descriptive of the establishment of an incubator maker,
Herr Gruenhaldt, at Walmunster, Lorraine, a village of about
100 souls, situated some twenty miles from Metz. The land is
described as consisting of about thirty English acres, and to be
distant three and a half miles from the railway station, with
which there is communication only by telephone and a postcart
which passes twice daily, the owner of the poultry establishment
keeping no horses. " Practically all the food is purchased, as
buck wheat, Indian meal, and fish made into baked cakes." The
stock on hand is said to be always from 7000 to 10,000 head of
poultry, chiefly chickens, with turkeys, geese, ducks, guineafowls,
112 POULTRY FOB TABLE AND 3TABKET.
and rabbits. The staff employed consists of the proprietor, his
clerk, a manager, a foreman, three boys, and three or four men for
the cows, garden, and orchard. The orchards are stated to contain
1200 fruit trees. The schloss, or chateau, is a broad-fronted
building of two storeys, with a considerable space under the high
pitched roof, which is entirely occupied by the newly-hatched
chickens, and they are said to remain there for six weeks, in three
tiers of cages with sanded trays. They are then put out into the
runs (which must be small and numerous, as there is said to be
above six English miles of wire netting) for another six weeks.
The value of the chickens sold " all over Germany " is, for the
smaller, 1 mark 60 pf., equal to Is. 6d. each ; for the larger,
2 marks 60 pf., say 2s. 6d. ; for a few exceptionally fatted and
older, 4 marks 50 pf. The establishment is regarded as being able
to supply 30,000 chickens annually, which, at a profit of Is. per
head, would give a profit of 15007.
A very cursory examination of the details of this scheme will
show that it possesses no more solid foundation than the scores of
others that have been tried in England and France, and vanished
after having been established one or two years.
That tens of thousandsof chickens hatched by incubators can be
reared until six weeks old in the dark cock-loft of an old chateau
is a demand on our credulity which we cannot permit.
Numbers of chickens are said to be sent " all over Germany,"
but, as the proprietor keeps no horses and the railway is three and
a half miles distant, how they are sent there, by the mail cart or
the telephone, it is difficult to conceive ; and that chickens sold at
three months old at Is. 6d. each can yield a profit of Is. each is
incredible. It is needless to say that no information is given as to
the length of time this establishment had been in operation, nor
of the precise number of birds sent away, nor of the cost of food,
labour, rent, or gross receipts. There was not the slightest attempt
at furnishing a balance sheet. Doubtless Mr. Catheart wrote in
perfect good faith ; and put down what he was told by an
enthusiast, but he obviously had no personal experience of the
subject he wrote about.
Nevertheless, the "Royal Agricultural Society of England thought
fit to publish this most unsatisfactory account, which is of no
practical value whatever, and which could only have oue effect —
that of inducing persons ignorant of the subject to embark in
similar \indertakings.
FALLACIES OF POULTRY FARMING. H3
The above comments were followed by a visit to this establish-
ment, which was described in the Live Stock Journal of March 20,
1891. The account is as favourable as possible, but it is only
necessary to read between the lines to see that the criticisms that
I made on the establishment were justifiable. In his first paragraph
Mr. Brown states : " Although I am bound to say that the results
are scarcely so satisfactory as might have been wished, this may
be due to circumstances, to be explained anon, which are his (Herr
Gruenhaldt's) misfortune rather than from any other cause."
Then follows the statements that there is " the possibility that the
farm may be vacated ere long," that not one of the incubators
was in operation, and, says the writer, " a further and considerable
capital is essential in order to carry on the work." Nevertheless,
we are told that the institution " paid, and paid well, during the
two years it has been established." That this establishment
should not be put in action at the commencement of the third
breeding season from want of capital is a thing which is easy to
believe ; but that it " paid, and paid well" during the two years
that it has been in operation is a point on which my readers can
form their own conclusions. People do not give up businesses
from want of capital when they have " paid well " for the two
previous seasons.
We then have a long description of Herr Gruenhaldt's particular
incubators. We are next told that the chickens, twenty-four hours
after they are hatched, are removed into cages in the upper rooms
of the schloss, which must, according to the engraving in the
original article, be in semi-darkness. Out of these cages, we are
told, these chickens never go ; but they are supplied with food
made of maize meal and buckwheat meal and milk, and kept in an
even temperature by a stove ; that they are ready for killing at six
weeks old (!), that all are killed when they attain the age of two
months, and at this time we are informed that many weigh 31b.
each, and the price per pound varies from llcZ. to Is. 3d. They
are killed on the spot, and despatched by the German parcels post,
in summer ice being used for packing.
It would be interesting to English poultry rearers to know the
breed of the fowls that reach 31b. in weight at two months — such
a variety is unknown in this country — and to learn the proportion
of deaths that takes place amongst the chickens that are removed
from the incubator into their cages and fattened for the table. Mr.
Brown unfortunately did not see anything for himself, not even a
i
114 POULTRY FOR TABLE AXD MARKET.
single two mouths old chicken weighing three pounds ! the
operations being suspended ; but that chickens varying from six
weeks to two months old can be reared and sold at Is. 3c?. per
pound in a district where every peasant produces (thickens for the
market w^uld require some very reliable evidence to render it
credible.
We do not know what the arrangements of the G-erniau parcels
post may be, but the ice used in summer for packing chickens
must necessarily melt, to the destruction of all other packages,
goods, and letters with which the water came into contact. We
are told, however, that last year 9000 chickens were reared in this
manner, in addition to nearly 1000 hatched by the incubator and
sold alive at two or three days old. Now, taking this statement as
a basis of calculation, it is not difficult to arrive at some approxi-
mation as to the income of this poultry-rearing establishment.
The gross amount arising from the sale of the 10,000 chickens,
varying from two or three days to under two months old, could not
possibly be much higher thau 500/., out of which would have to
be paid the rent of the chateau and the surrounding land, the
purchase of eggs for hatching, the interest on the capital expended
in the construction of the incubators and all the appliances
requisite, the food of the birds during the time they are growing,
the cost of the labour in cleansing, killing, plucking, and that of
conveyance to market. Ought we to feel surprised that, notwith-
standing we are told on the one hand that the business has " paid,
and paid well" during the two years it has been established, it
cannot now be carried on for want of capital F It must have
had some capital to commence with, and, if it has paid well,
that capital should have been increased.
The concluding sentence of this account informs us that,
•• although the establishment at Schloss TValmiinster proves as
vet nothing as to the pecuniary success of poultry farming,
there are several novel features of interest noted." It appears
to me, and very probably will to most of my readers who take
an interest in the matter, that, though this establishment does
not prove anything as to the pecuniary success of poultry
farming, it is an additional proof of the failure that always
attends such efforts.
The fact cannot be too strongly insisted on, that, under all cir-
cumstances, poultry should be regarded as a bye product. Where
the fowls necessitate no extra payment for land or building — where
FALLACIES OF POULTRY FARMING. 115
they get, as in a farmyard, a considerable proportion of food for
nothing, and where they are fed, when the food is supplied to
them, on waste products, such as tail corn, small potatoes boiled
down, and other almost valueless articles of diet, and cost nothing
for labour — fowls can always be kept to profit. It is in this way
really that they are kept by the small peasant proprietors in France,
and by a large number of cottagers in England ; and it is with the
object of showing how they can be kept to the best advantage
that this work has been written.
Poultry farms, properly so called, must not be confounded with
those establishments for the sale of fancy poultry at fancy prices,
which the owners advertize as Poultry Farms, they being in fact
nothing of the sort, but merely places where large numbers of show
poultry are kept in separate runs for the purpose of sale, at prices
varying from half a guinea to five or ten guineas a bird. But even
these establishments are rarely successful.
The Prebendal poultry farm at Aylesbury, though conducted
with the greatest amount of skill and knowledge of exhibition
poultry that could be brought to bear upon the subject, was
dispersed in the usual manner, by the auctioneer's hammer, in
October, 1889. Fancy poultry establishments still exist, but they
change owners very frequently, the original promoters, in some
instances, having to my knowledge lost thousands of pounds.
But even if these establishments could always be conducted in a
prosperous manner, they would furnish no argument against my
contention that poultry farming does not pay, it being totally
distinct from the breeding of fancy or exhibition poultry.
To produce poultry and eggs in large quantities for the market,
and as part of the food supply of the country, has never yet been
made to pay when carried on as a separate business, and liable to
be charged with all the outgoings that are necessarily incurred. As
was stated by the late Mr. Alexander Comyns :
" This is the only form of poultry fanning that is worthy of the
name. The poultry fancier and exhibitor may enlarge what was,
perhaps, his private hobby into a business, which may be small or
large ; but he, after all, has only to do what poultry fanciers like
most, and is in no wise concerned whether the imports of foreign eggs
increase or decrease. He may often go so far as calling his estab-
lishment the Poultry Farm, but as long as the chief part
of his business is selling fancy poultry and eggs, he is not a poultry
farmer,"
i 2
116 POULTRY FOE TABLE AXD MARKET.
With all these facts before us it nevertheless appears impossible
to eradicate the idea, that poultry farming pure and simple can, on
a larger or smaller scale, be made to pay. Not a year passes but
that some scores of private individuals, having perhaps small
incomes of their own, go into the country, take a house with a few
acres of land, erect buildings and commence poultry keeping with a
view to supply the markets at a profit. If, as I have said before,
the poultry be a bye product of the farm, costing little or nothing
in the way of rent for land or building, little in the way of labour,
and obtaining a large portion of their own food, then fowls can be
kept to profit ; but these conditions are absent in all the so-called
poultry farms, and consequently they invariably and inevitably
come to grief.
I constantly receive letters asking for advice on this matter, and
my reply invariably is, " Do not enter into the business until you
have studied the details of the management of some establishment
where it has been carried on for two years with success — a thing
which I have never yet been able to find."
I could enumerate, if it were necessarv. some scores of poultry
farms that have been founded, or attempted to be founded, the
whole of which have without a single exception failed in less than
two years. The money that I know to have been wasted in these
efforts amounts to very many thousands of pounds.
Recentlv a new proposal in Poultry Farming has been issued by
Major Morant,* in which the keeping of hens and rearing chickens
in large numbers in absolute confinement is advocated.
Accepting the well-known fact that if hens are confined in small
poultrv yards they invariably become diseased as the ground
gets tainted, the writer suggests that, instead of permanently
fencing in a patch of ground, the fowls should be kept in movable
houses, each with a small wire run ; and he imagines that they
will be as healthy and lay as many eggs as if they had their
liberty. As an example of his system, he relates that four half-bred
pullets were placed in a boarded coop, 4ft. long by 3ft. broad, and
3ft. 6in. high in the centre, with a felt roof, in which was a glass
window, the floor being formed of open spars of wood, and the
whole sufficiently light to be lifted easily. Attached to this coop
was a run 8ft, by 4ft,, and 2ft. high, covered with wire netting.
* How to Keep Laying Hens, and to Bear Chickens, in large or small
Numbers, in absolute confinement, with "'perfect success." By Major G. F.
Morant. London : L. Upcott Gill, 170, Strand. W.C. 1891.
FALLACIES OF POULTRY FARMING. 117
This house and run were moved on to fresh ground daily, sometimes
to the grass and sometimes on to vacant garden ground, where
potatoes or other crops had been removed. Under these circum-
stances he states that his four pullets laid 647 eggs in ten months.
Judging by the results obtained with a single coop, Major
Morant thinks that such houses, only of a somewhat larger size,
each capable of holding ten pullets, might be multiplied inde-
finitely, and that 100 houses, holding 1000 hens, could easily
stand in a six-acre field, and be kept to profit by the farmer. The
heus, he says, should average from 150 to 200 eggs a year each,
and that they should be kept until they are two years old, when
he thinks they will fetch about 2s. each, sufficient to pay for
rearing the pullets which are to replace them. That young
pullets in their prime, whether for laying or killing, could be
exchanged for old hens, is not within the experience of any prac-
tical breeder. It is always difficult in the country to get rid of old
hens at Is. or Is. 6d. each.
Whilst admitting the advantages that may accrue to a small
householder from keeping a few fowls in one of these confined
runs, I differ in toto from Major Morant as to the possibility of
keeping a large number of laying hens in confinement on this
system with any profitable result. I will take his own statements,
and apply them to 1000 hens. In order to keep them on this
system they would require 100 houses and runs — each of which he
himself estimates as costing 21., the total being 200?. The 1000
young hens in their prime could hardly cost less than 3s. each = 150/.
He states that a pony and trolly womd be required to move these
houses and runs on to fresh ground every day. We may put the
cost of this pony and trolly down at not less than 15/. The cost of
the baskets and boxes for the conveyance of eggs to market, and
other incidentals cannot be put below 10Z. Here we have a capital
invested of 375/., the interest upon which, joined to the annual
depreciation and repairs of the houses, cannot be taken at less
than 50/. The rent of the six acres may be put down at 15/.
The cost of feeding the fowls, according to Major Morant's own
showing, is \\d. a week each, or 6s. 6d. per head per annum. This
for 1000 hens amounts to 321/. We are not told how many
labourers would be required to feed the 1000 hens and attend to
and remove the 100 houses with the aid of the pony and trolly,
but we can hardly put this labour at less than 50/., and the eggs
would have to be packed and conveyed to market. The keep of
118 POULTRY FOR TABLE AND MARKET.
the pony, rent of the stable, and other buildings required for the
poultry establishment (that of the dwelling-house not even being
taken into consideration) could hardly be less than 257; whilst
the exchange of the old worn-out hens for young pullets may be
estimated at the "very lowest as 257. per annum. The total annual
expense of keeping these 1000 hens would therefore amount to
4867. Now, taking the number of eggs produced at Major Morant's
own calculation, namely. 175 per hen, these in the open market,
where the 175,000 eggs per annum would have to be sold, could
not possibly command a larger sum than 10*. per hen. This
would give us a return of 5007., leaving a profit of 147. per annum,
out of which the house rent and living of the proprietor would
have to be paid. The expenses here are estimated at the lowest
possible amount ; and no account is taken of loss of any of the
hens by disease, which would inevitably occur amongst so many,
crowded together as they would be.
It is useless to write about fresh eggs producing 2d. each in
the shops, when they have to be sold wholesale. The estimate of
10*. for the produce of each hen. which I have allowed in this
account, is far too favourable, but I am desirous of not overstating
my ease. The cost of eggs in the country markets must be taken
as the guide, and not the fancy prices in fashionable shops.
The following is the balance-sheet that may fairly be deduced
from the author's own statements :
Annual Balance Sheet.
Dr. £ g. d. Or. £ s. d.
Kent of land 15 0 0 Value of egg* produced at
Food of 1000 hens 321 0 0 10.«. per hen 500 0 0
Hire of labour 50 0 0
Renewal of hens 25 0 0
Interest of capital and de-
preciation of houses, 4c. 50 0 0
Keep of pony, stable, kc... 25 0 0
To balance * 14 0 0
,£500 0 0 £-500 0 0
I have little doubt but that the proposals in Major Morant's
pamphlet will be carried into effect by *onie enthusiasts ; but, as I
have said of many more promising schemes, I want to see the
balance-sheet at the end of two years.
The proposal of Major Morant to rear chickens for the market
under similar conditions I have not entered into, as it appears to
me, as a practical man, quite outside all serious consideration.
CHAPTEE XXV.
FOWLS IN SMALL RUNS.
The great extension of the poultry fancy in England has induced
many persons living in suburban and even town residences to keep
fowls in small enclosed runs for the supply of eggs for the table.
This has little to do with the subject of profitable market and table
poultry, which is the main object of this work ; but, as the practice
is extensively followed, and there is a right and wrong way of
doing everything, it may not be without advantage to devote a few
words to the consideration of the best method of keeping fowls in
confined places. I am constantly receiving such questions as
"How many fowls can I keep in a run 30ft. by 10ft., or in one of
50ft. by 12ft. ? " &e. My reply always is, " The smaller the
number you keep in a confined area, the healthier they will remain,
and consequently the more productive." When fowls are crowded
together in a small space, the ground becomes saturated with thei
own excrement, their food (scattered on the surface) is always con-
taminated with it ; the air they breath is impure, being charged
with the gases arising from the foetid ground ; and the possibility
of obtaining worms, grubs, or any natural insect food, and even
green food (except such as is supplied artificially) is denied them.
Can it be wondered, then, that the birds become unhealthy, and
that, to supply the want of natural animal diet, they take to eating
each other's feathers and their own eggs ? Then, again, from want
of due exercise, and over feeding, especially on fat house scraps,
the hens not un frequently become enormously fat internally, and
cease to be productive.
To prevent these evils as far as possible, certain precautions
should be taken. The largest space available should be given to
the birds. If sufficient can be afforded, and it is practicable to do
so, it should be divided into two or three portions, each of which
should be allowed to lie fallow for a time, being deeply dug up
after it has become foul, when some fresh slaked lime should be
120 POULTRY FOB TABLE AND MABKET.
added, and the ground sown with rape. This by its quick growth
rapidly exhausts the manure of the soil, and furnishes an admir-
able supply of green food to the fowls when they are let into it.
The portion of the run in which the birds are kept should be as
clean as possible, and may with great advantage be covered with
house ashes day by day.
In feeding the birds great care should be taken not to give them
fatty scraps from the house. Bones, which they will pick perfectly
clean, may be given, but all fat meat or grease of any kind should
be avoided, as the great tendency of the birds is to become unduly
fat internally. For the same reason maize, the most fattening of
the ordinary grains, should be avoided. The dietary should consist,
as far as corn is concerned, of barley, wheat, or dari, which may be
supplemented with waste potatoes and other vegetables from the
house. The food should in no case be thrown down on the ground,
which is always more or less soiled in a confined run. Green food
in abundance is absolutely necessary. Cabbages or lettuces run-
ning to seed may be utilised with advantage, being most advan-
tageously tied up against the side of the run, so that the fowls
can eat them without dragging them about on the soiled ground ;
or large swede turnips may be secured by being stuck on a stake
driven into the ground and the tops cut off, when they are readily
eaten by the birds.
With regard to the breed that may be used, it is better under
the circumstances to employ non-sitting varieties, because they lay a
large number of eggs ; and the profitable rearing of chickens is
perfectly impracticable under such conditions. Therefore such
varieties as Minorcas, Andalusians, and Leghorns may be selected,
if it is particularly desired to keep a pure breed. It will be found
a much better plan to buy young pullets ready to lay, keep them
until they have finished laying, and then dispose of them and buy
others. Under these circumstances there is no utility, and fre-
quently a great annoyance to the neighbours, in keeping a male
bird. If the requisite number of pullets are bought twice a year,
a very fair supply of new laid eggs, which are especially valuable
in the suburban districts, can thus be obtained for household
purposes.
If early-hatched pullets are bought in September or October,
and well fed in the manner described, without being over fattened,
they will lay well throughout the winter, before becoming broody.
When this takes place in the spring they should be sold as stock
FOWLS IN SMALL BUNS. 121
birds, or eaten at home (they are of no value as market fowl), and
their place supplied by some late-hatched pullets, which may be
depended ou for laying throughout the summer ; these, in their
turn, will be sold to make way for another batch of early spring
birds. Even where this course is pursued, it "will be found more
advantageous, if practicable, to buy jmllets of some non-sitting
breed, such as Minorcas, &c, but ordinary fowls will do well.
The advantage of this plan over that which is sometimes adopted,
of keeping the same hens year after year in confined runs, is very
great. The pullets bought for laying should be strong, vigorous,
country-bred birds, containing in their ovaries large numbers of
immature yolks, which must be developed into eggs under the
circumstances in which they are placed; whereas, when hens are
kept year after year in confinement they become sterile and
practically cease to lay. Hence many persons beginning with
poultry in a confined space are very well satisfied for the first
few months, but in a couple of years, or less, get rid of both
fowls and fowl runs, saying the eggs cost them about half a
crown apiece — an evil which can be avoided by attending to the
recommendations here made.
A letter appeared in the Times of January 6, 1892, advocating
the keeping of fowls in suburban back gardens, and stating that
they may be advantageously kept in an open space " however
small"! The writer, whose letter is dated Dec. 31, 1891, states
that :
" About eighteen months ago, when I removed to my present
address, I found already erected a fowl-house standing in the
centre of an inclosure measuring 8ft. by 20ft., formed on three
sides by the garden wall and in the front by a wire netting. I at
once determined to try my hand at egg-producing, when a kind
friend, by way of starting me in that line, presented me with five
fowls — four hens and a cock. As, however, the latter proved to be
an "early bird," and awoke us soon after midnight, I soon disposed
of him. and resolved to act upon the zenana principle. During the
autumn I purchased two pullets ; so that I commenced this year
with six hens, which number has never been exceeded."
These six hens produced 44 dozen of eggs during the year —
an average of eighty-eight for each fowl. It is hardly necessary
to state that an average of eighty-eight eggs per year for each
hen is a very poor result indeed, and one that would have been
greatly improved had all the birds been pullets, whereas four
122 POULTRY FOR TABLE AND MARKET.
were old hens. The amount of space allowed to each fowl is
2^ square yards, how long such a space can be occupied without
becoming absolutely foetid depends somewhat on the amount
of cleansing it receives ; but there is no doubt that fowls kept
continuously in such a narrow space must almost of necessity
swallow food tainted with their own excrement, and that they
must breathe the exhalations from the foul ground, whilst there is
an absence of all fresh natural food, such as insects, worms,
growing herbage, &c. Under these conditions fowls lose their
prolificacy very rapidly. If the birds of the Times correspondent
are kept another year there will be a lamentable falling off in the
number of eggs, even if feather-eating, or, still worse, the infec-
tious bacillus of the Poultry Farm disease does not demonstrate
its presence and carry off the stock.
The writer of the letter signed " 0." in the Times, is merely
repeating the experience of thousands of others, whose poultry in
narrow runs do admirably the first year, whilst the birds are young
and the ground pure, but are not so satisfactory the second season,
and are got rid of as not worth their keep in the third, and this in
spite of the fact that the house scraps are nearly sufficient for
their entire support.
As before stated, the only method of ensuring a supply of eggs
from fowls kept under these conditions is to renew the pullets
as soon as they cease laying, as young birds seem constrained, if
fairly fed, to develop all the ova in their ovaries into perfect eggs.
CHA'PTEE XXYI.
CAPONIZING.
The operation of caponising is one that is not usually had recourse
to even in France, and may be regarded as unnecessary in all
cases where the fowls of different sexes can be separated, as recom-
mended in Chapter XVII., at an early age.
As performed in this country, it is usually conducted in so
unscientific and brutal a manner that I regard myself as justified
in showing the mode in which it is accomplished in France. The
American plan is, in my opinion, not as successful. Under any
circumstances, the operation is one of a severe and painful
character, and, in my opinion, unnecessary.
The name of capon is given to young cocks which have been
deprived of the faculty of reproduction. In this state they grow
to a very large size, and fatten more readily ; their flesh also is
more delicate.
It is desirable to submit the cocks to the operation when they
are about four months old, and it is very important to choose a
time when the weather is somewhat cool, rather moist than dry,
and especially to avoid performing the operation during the great
heats of summer.
The instrument employed in the operation should be very sharp ;
a surgeon's small operating knife, termed a curved pointed bistoury,
is far better than an ordinary knife, as it makes a much neater
wound, and so increases greatly the chances of healing ; or a curved
pointed penknife may be used. A stout needle and waxed thread
are also requisite ; a small curved surgical needle will be found
much more convenient in use than a common straight one.
It is necessary that there should be two persons to perform the
operation. The assistant places the bird on its right side on the
knees of the person who is about to operate, and who is seated
in a chair of such a height as to make his thighs horizontal.
The back of the bird is turned towards the operator, and the
124 POULTRY FOR TABLE AND MARKET.
right leg and thigh held firmly along the body, the left -wing
being drawn back towards the tail, thus exposing the left flank,
where the incision has to be made. After removing the feathers
the skin is raised up just behind the last rib, with the point
of the needle, so as to avoid wounding the intestines, and an
incision along the edge of the last rib is made into the cavity of
the body sufficiently large to admit of the introduction of the
finger. If any portion of the bowels escape from the wound, it
must be carefully returned. The forefinger is then introduced
into the cavity, and directed behind the intestines towards the
back, somewhat to the left side of the middle line of the body.
If the proper position is gained (which is somewhat difficult to
an inexperienced operator, especially if the cock is of full size), the
finger comes into contact with the left testicle, which, in a young
bird of four months is rather larger than a full-sized horse bean.
It is moveable, and apt to slip under the finger, although adhering
to the spine. When felt it is to be gently pulled away from its
attachments with the finger and removed through the wound — an
operation which requires considerable practice and facility to per-
form properly, as the testicle sometimes slips from under the
finger before it is got out, and, gliding amongst the intestines,
cannot be found again readily. It may, however, remain in the
body of the animal without much inconvenience, although it is
better removed, as its presence is apt to excite inflammation.
After removing the left testicle, the finger is again introduced,
and the right one sought for in a similar manner. It is readily
discovered, as its situation is alongside of the former, a little to the
right side of the body. Afterwards the lips of the wound are
brought together and kept in contact with two or three stitches
■with the waxed thread. No attempt should be made to sew up
the wound with a continuous seam, but each stitch should be per-
fectly separate, and tied distinctly from the others.
In making the stitches great care should be taken ; the skin
should be raised up so as to avoid wounding the intestines with
the needle, or including even the slightest portion of them in the
thread — an accident that would almost inevitably be followed by
the death of the animal.
After the operation the bird had better be placed under a coop
in a quiet situation, and supplied with drink and soft food, such as
sopped bread. After a few hours it is best to give him his liberty,
if he can be turned out in some quiet place removed from the
CAPONIZING. 125
poultry-yard, as, if attacked by the other cocks, the healing of the
wound would be endangered.
After the operation the bird should not he permitted to roost on
a perch, as the exertion of leaping up would unquestionably injure
the wound ; it should, therefore, at night be turned into a room
where it is obliged to rest on the floor, previously covered with
some clean straw. For three or four days after the operation the
bird should be fed on soft food ; after that time it may be set at
lihei'ty for a short period, until it has recovered entirely from the
operation, when it should be put up to fatten.
In France it is customary to cut off the combs of the capons.
This is regarded as a distinguishing mark of the operation having
been performed, and consequently the birds do not sell so freely
if they are allowed to remain.
If the animal mopes about on the day following the operation,
it is desirable to look at the wound, and, should it be inflamed, to
bathe it with a little tepid water. If, however, the intestine has
been wounded, there is no chance of recovering. Some persons
place oil and other applications on the wound, but there is no
doubt that they retard the healing process. As a general rule, it
may be stated that if the operation has been skilfully performed
it rarely fails of success.
The operation of making " poulardes " is much easier than the
corresponding one on the cocks. The pullet is to be placed in
the same position on the lap of the operator, the left leg being
drawn forwards so as to expose the left flank, in which a longi-
tudinal incision is to be made close to the side bone; this will
bring to view the lower bowel, and alongside of it will be found
the egg passage, or egg pipe. If this is drawn to the orifice
of the wound by a small hooked wire, and cut across — or, what is
perhaps better, a very short piece of it removed— the development
of the ovary, or egg-producing organ, is entirely prevented, and
the birds fatten rapidly, attaining also a very large size. It is
most important to perform the operation before the pullets have
begun to lay. I would beg to impress most strongly the
desirability of practising these operations in the first instance on
dead birds of the same age, so that the operator may become
acquainted with the situation and appearance of the parts con-
cerned. By this means a greater amount of success will be
attained in the first instance, and much unnecessary suffering saved
to the animals.
126 POULTRY FOB TABLE AND MABKET.
The food used for fattening capons in France is chiefly buckwheat
meal, bolted quite fine. This is kneaded up with sweet milk till
it acquires the consistency of baker's dough ; it is then cut up into
rations about the size of two eggs, which are made up into rolls
about the thickness of a woman's finger, but varying with the sizes
of the fowls ; these are sub-divided by a sloping cut into " patons,"
or pellets, about two-and-a-half inches long.
A board is used for mixing the flour with the milk, which in
winter should be lukewarm. It is poured into a hole made in the
heap of flour, and mixed up little by little with a wooden spoon so
long as it is taken up ; the dough is then kneaded by the hands
till it no longer adheres to them.
The food is thus administered : The attendant puts on an apron,
and having the pellets at hand, with a bowl of clear water, she
takes the first fowl from its cage gently and carefully, not by
the wings or the legs, but with both hands ; she then seats
herself, with the fowl upon her knees, under her left arm, by which
she supports it ; the left hand then opens its mouth, and the right
hand takes up a pellet, dips it in the water (this is essential),
shakes it on its way to the open mouth, puts it straight down, and
carefully crams it with the forefinger well into the gullet ; when
it is so far settled down that the fowl cannot eject it, she presses
it down with the thumb and forefinger into the crop, taking care
not to fracture the pellet.
Other pellets follow the first, till the feeding is finished, in less
time than one would imagine. The fowl when fed is again held
with both hands, and replaced in its cage without fluttering, and
so on with each fowl.
INDEX
Page
Acland, Mr. C. T., on the
monopoly of prizes by a few
Exhibitors 2
Andalusiaus 34
Ant eggs for chickens 60
Agricultural Commission, Re-
port on French poultry -
keeping 55
Aylesbury ducks best for
market 92
Azeel 25
Azeel crosses for table 71
Bacillus in poultry farm disease 102
Bantams 40
Barhani's, Mr. T., testing of
cross-bred table fowl 69
Barndoor fowls 41
Bective, Lady, on Wyandottes 21
Beviugton's, Mr. Tim., mode
of rearing table fowls 70
Bewick's farm yard fowl 4
Brahmas, alterations in,effected
by breeding for show 16
Brahmas as market fowl 16
Brahmas, origin of 16
Brahmas, necessity of two
pens for breeding show birds 17
Braquemond Farm Yard fowl 6
Breeding for show, injurious
effect of 3
Bromley, poultry farm at 106
Buck wheat meal, use iu fatten-
ing 126
Burnell, Mr., on Cuckoo Dor-
king 11
Canary seed for chickens 61
Caneton de Rouen 96
Pasb
Capouising 123
Charny, supposititious poultry
farm at 109
Chicken-breeding for market 68
Chickens, best food for 60
Chicken rearing in gardens ... 59
Chitteprats 38
Cholera 101
Clear eggs, use for chicken food 60
Cock-fighting, effects on fowls 8
Cochins 13
Cochins, characteristics of, as
when introduced 13
Cochins, cross-bred, valueless
as table fowls 15
Cochins injurious in farm yards 14
Cooping hens with chickens ... 58
Coops with runs 58
Collies useless as sheep dog ... 2
Comyns, Mr. A., on fictitious
poultry farms 115
Cramming 78
Cramming machine 79
Cramp 101
Cresswell, Mr. O. E., on in-
feriority of modern Dorking 12
Creveeceurs 27
Crevecceurs, the Stockheeper
on show Crevcoeurs 27
Crooked breast, cause of 46
Cross-bred chicken for table ... 74
Cross-bred chicken at Birming-
ham and dairy shows 74
Custard for young birds 60
Dari for young chickens 61
De Sora poultry farm hoax ... 107
Digby, Mr. H., on Aylesbury
ducks 92
128
INDEX.
Page
Digby, Mr., on rearing young
geese 97
Diseases of poultry 100
Dog shows, useful qualities
ignored at 2
Dorkings, effect of shows iu
depreciating 12
Dorkings, mode in which
modern breed was obtained 10
Douglas's, Mr. John, breed of
Dorkings 10
Ducks 92
Ducks for stock, selection of. . . 96
Ducks, loss of eggs, laid in
water 93
Ducks, killing for market 95
Ducks, rearing for market 94
Dust bath for fowls 47
Eggs, conditions affecting their
quality 66
Eggs, selecting for hatching 52
Eggs, number in nest 51
Eggs, non-interference with
when hatching 53
Eggs, cost of in English markets 64
Eggs, preserving for winter use 67
Eggs, production for market... 66
Eggs, testing fertility 52
Egg-tester to make 53
Fancy fowls useless for market 3
Farm poultry, improvement of 42
Farm yard fowl of Bewick . . . 4
Farm Yard fowl of Braquemond 6
Fasting before killing necessary 80
Fat house-scraps injurious ... 120
Fattening 76
Fattening, use of animal fat . . . 71
Feathers, cost of production
four times that of flesh 15
Feeding 47
Feeding on soiled ground 48
Feeding, cost of 50
Feeding, value of different
grains 49
Fletcher Moss, Mr., on Old and
Modern Game fowls 8
Fowler, Mr. J. K., on manage-
ment of ducks 93
Fowls in small runs 118
French table breeds 26
Frizzled fowls 40
Page
Game fowls, ancient and modern 7
Gapes 100
Geese 95
Goslings, food for 96
Guinea fowl 91
Guinea fowls, feeding young... 91
Hambui-ghs 38
Hatching 51
Hearson's cramming machine. . . 79
Hearson's incubator 55
Houdans. French and English
contrasted 26
Housing 45
Incubators, proper construction
of 54
Incubator, Hearson's 55
Indian Game, characters of
breed 23
Indian Game, crosses for table
poultry 71
Jacque's, M., drawings of
Creve Coeur 28
Houdan 26
LaFleche 29, 30
Jenkins, Mi-. H. M., Sec. Royal
Agrie. Soc.on present show
system 2
Jess for tethering hens 59
Johnston, Mr. Cuthbert, on the
De Sorahoax 107
KiUing fowls 80
LaFleche 29
Langshans 19
Langshans crossed with Game 19
Langshan crosses for table ... 69
Leghorns 37
Malays 23
Minorcas 33
Moonies 38
Mo rant. Major, on hens in con-
finement 116
Moss, Mr. Fletcher, on Game
fowls 9
Nests, best mode of making ... 51
Nichols, Mr., on the sterility of
show Spanish 33
INDEX.
129
Page
Non-sitting varieties 31
Norris-Ely, on inutility of show
Brahmas 16
Offal, relative amount in good
and bad table fowls 69
Old English Game, use in
crossing 8
Orpingtons 19
Orpington disease 101
Parlett's, Mr., experiments in
crossing Game 9
Perches, right arrangement
of 45
Pheasant fowl 38
Physick, Mr., on the deteriora-
tion of show Minorcas 34
Plymouth Rocks 20
Polish 39
Portable poultry house 99
Poultry shows encourage fancy
points only 1
Poultry fanciers' motive in
breeding show birds 3
Poultry farming, fallacies
of 106
Poultry farming in Germany ... Ill
Poultry farm disease 101
Prize pigs, uselessness of 2
Rearing young chickens 57
Red caps 40
Roup 100
Royal Agricultural Society's
poultry prizes 5
Rumpless fowls 40
Rushford, poultry farm at 110
Page
Scurfy legs 104
Separation of sexes desirable in
fowls for the table 73
Silky fowls 40
StochTceeper on uselessness of
show Brahmas 17
Spanish 31
Sutherland, Mr. 0 . L . , on turkey
hens as incubators 55
Sutherland. Mr. C. L., on Indian
Game and Dorking Cross ... 75
Sutherland, Mr. C. L., on non-
existence of French poultry
farms 106
Testing eggs 53
Tethering hens with chickens 59
Trussing dead poultry 82
Turkeys 88
Turkeys, food of young 89
Turkeys, Cambridge, best breed
for market 88
Turkeys, hatching 89
Turkeys,management in France 90
Turner on separating sexes of
chickens 74
Yerrey, Mr. L. C, on necessity
of two pens for breeding
show birds 18
Waterloo Cup winner not a
show dog 2
Wire runs for feeding young
chickens 58
Wyandottes 21
Yolk, the absorption of, at birth 54
Advertisements.
Award of a Gold Medal to
HEARSON'S CHAMPION INCUBATOR
CO
pes
pa
CO
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as
pes
C=3
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e—
to
At the HAGUE EXHIBITION.
In a trial carried on by the Judges under test condition?. Hearson's Champion
Incubator hatched 98 Chicks ott of 100 Eggs. We supply the world with
Incubators, and all who use our machines acknowledge them to be without a rival.
THE PROBLEM SOLVED.
CHICKENS ALL THE YEAR ROUND.
All the Best Prizes and Medals hare been awarded to
HEARSON'S
CHAMPION
INCUBATOR
(BY ROYAL LETTERS PATENT).
The must complete and only Thermostatic Incubator in the world.
FITTED WITH COPPER TAXK.
co
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PP
The CHAMPIOX has now superseded all others. Since its introduction no other
incubator maker in the world has been awarded a first prize at any show at which
this apparatus has been entered for competition. It is the only incubator in the
world sold with a guarantee not to vary 5 deg. for 12 months together, without
readjustment, and in no other incubator is the ventilation and damping so scientifi-
cally and practically carried out.
HEARSON'S PATENT HYDROTHERMIC FOSTER MOTHER.
An Outdoor Bearer for Chickens.
BEST IN THE WORLD.
E->
-aS
Ss-
PCS
E-
PCS
CO
pes
-a3
PQ
i-3
c^>
PQ
CO
pes
Illustrated Price List of above one stamp. Address P Department,
Chas. Hearson & Co.. Limited. 235, Eegent Street, London, "W.
poultry
FOR THE
TABLE AND MARKET
VERSUS
FANCY FOWLS.
NOTICES OF THE FIRST EDITION.
Daily Telegraph, Feb. 4, 1S92.
So many people are allured by works which promise them a handsome competence
if they will only take to providing table fowls and eggs near some large centre of
population that Mr. Tegetmeier is doing a public service in calling attention to the
usually delusive nature of all such assurances. ... It evidently behoves the
authorities of poultry shows to reconsider their ways, and the would-be poultry
farmer must take warning and see that that way ruination lies. It is of no use to try
to compete with the foreigner without a preliminary understanding of how it is that
the foreigner can rear poultry for next to nothing.
Morning Post, Feb. 24.
A remarkably practical and sensible book. The author, who has had a long and
varied experience, ridicules the idea of endeavouring to breed fowls for useful and
economic purposes on the principles adopted by the fancier and exhibitor. He
explains what kind of poultry will be found the most profitable, and how they should
be reared and managed. The chapter on the " Fallacies ef Poultry Farming " is a
most valuable one.
Daily Graphic, Feb. 19.
Mr. W. B. Tegetmeier is possiblv better entitled than anyone else to a hearing on
the subject of poultry, and a little book with which he has just come before the world
is from every point of view most valuable. His aim in the work before us is to
increase the quantity of marketable poultry and the quantity of eggs produced in
this country, to expose current fallacies with regard to poultry keeping, and to show
the best manner in which to establish poultry farming on a rational and profitable
basis. Mr. Tegetmeier deals exhaustively with the whole subject, beginning with the
most important breeds of fowls as they now exist, and then passing on to the man-
agement of profitable agricultural and market stock, while he also discusses the
important questions of housing, feeding, hatching, cross breeding, and rearing, and
the hundred and one causes which determine whether or no poultry farming shall
be profitable. The book is well illustrated with drawings of typical birds, showing
the very marked difference between those grown for use and for show.
Evening Standard, Feb. 18.
That the prize poultry craze is likely to be seriously affected by the scathing
denunciation of Mr. Tegetmeier, the greatest authority upon the subject, and himself
a judge at many of the principal poultry shows in the kingdom for the last thirty
years, would be contrary to the ordinary course of affairs in such cases.
The Live Stock Journal, Feb. 5.
This volume is altogether trustworthy and well informed as to details of manage-
ment by which good table fowls may be reared and fattened. . . . The most
useful book on poultry that has appeared. . . . Likely to serve as a text-book for
g-enerations.
( 2 )
Poultry, Feb. 5.
Few are able to speak with more authority on the subject of commercial poultry-
keeping, which he has closely studied for nearly forty years. . . . There can be
only one opinion as to the earnest, clear, and practical manner in which he handles
his subject. . . . We can heartily recommend it to every breeder, be he the
fancier pure and simple, or the man who desires to take up poultry from a purely
commercial point of view.
The Garden.
The impartial reader cannot but agrie with Mr. Tegetmeier that exhibition birds
are not those which are adapted for agricultural and economical purposes. . . .
The present volume will not please everyone, but to those who are anxious to raise
the standard of their table poultry, and at the same time increase the production of
eggs, no better instructor can be offered. It goes without saying that the chapter on
general management cannot be improved upon, though some of the author's remarks
may not be appreciated by every reader.
The Farm.
At poultry shows, as at present conducted, fancy points are alone considered by
the judges. The profitable value, from a consumer's point of view, is entirely
ignored. Fancy points are cultivated to such an extent that one breed becomes a
mass of useless feathers, another walks on stilts, a third class is endowed with crests
as large as plates. In publishing the work under notice, Mr. Tegetmeier has but
one object in view, the increase of marketable poultry and the quantity of eggs pro-
duced in this country.
Feathered World, Feb. 5.
That there is need for such a book goes without saying, for one has only to
recollect the nondescript class of poultry usually kept about farmyards and small
holdings to feel sure that the advice here given will prove of value to many, if only
taken to heart and acted upon.
Gardener's Chronicle, May 14.
The pictures fully bear out his opinion, contrasting, as they do, common and fancy
fowls when first introduced, with the deformities bearing the same names, which
latter are generally not only more delicate in constitution, and less productive than the
old varieties, but far less suited than those for the table.
Athex.eim, Aug. 27.
The name and high reputation of the author are guarantees for thoroughness of
treatment, and, indeed, the chapters on hatching, rearing, and breeding poultry for
the market can hardly be rivalled.
Academy, April 30.
A more practical book on the subject was never written, it cannot be too widely
circulated in rural districts.
The Zoologist.
Mr. Tegetmeier compares fowls as they were with fowls as they are, and shows
that for agricultural and economical purposes the modern fancy breeds are useless, as
contrasted with the older varieties. He considers that agricultural societies are doing
more harm than good by offering prizes for useless birds, and ignoring to a great
extent the birds which would be of more benefit to the farmer and to the nation at large.
Saturday Review, March 12.
Mr. Tegetmeier thinks it is much to be regretted that useful poultry is excluded
from our great agricultural exhibitions and fancy feather varieties favoured in their
stead. As to the evidence, Mr. Tegetmeier has produced enough to engage the
serious attention of farmers, and more than enough to stir the fancier to reply.
Mark Lane Express, March 7.
Mr. Tegetmeier, in his wonderfully interesting work on "Table and Market
Poultry,'' has shown how exhibitions have injuriously produced fancy animals.
( 3 )
Lloyd's Newspaper, May 15.
Mr. Tegetmeier's most useful handbook deserves the closest possible study.
Midland Counties Herald, Aug. ii.
At the present time, when so much attention is being paid to agricultural matters
in the way of cottage allotments and small holdings, and the best means of developing
the minor resources of the farm, its publication is most opportune, and we can recom-
mend all who take an interest in such matters to obtain it.
Echo, March 10.
Mr. Tegetmeier is unquestionably one of the highest authorities on poultry, but
he has no high opinion of the value of poultry shows in the production of marketable
and useful birds.
Bazaar, March 16
We cordially recommend this work, which not only teaches the poultry keeper all
he requires to know to enable him to succeed, but also how to avoid the mistakes
which are so commonly made. . . . The book, too, is a practical protest
against the miserable but too common idea that the fancier is an improver of breeds,
and that poultry farming can be made to pay.
The World, March 2.
The small farmer and landed proprietor may learn much from the study of this
interesting volume. Mr. Tegetmeier proves conclusively that poultry as a source of
food has suffered materially by the attention bestowed on fancy poultry.
Yorkshire Herald, Feb. 19.
A useful guide to farmers who want to make a profit out of poultry. . . . Mr.
Tegetmeier strongly deprecates poultry farms ; he shows that all such attempts must
be unremunerative, though it should be easy on every farm, at scarcely any appreci-
able cost, to keep a considerable stock of poultry and raise eggs and rear chickens in
paying quantities for the market.
The Scotsman, Feb. 15.
A valuable manual for those who cultivate poultry. . . . A practical handbook
of all the details of the industry, written from long experience of breeding poultry.
Contains a number of illustrations which add considerably to its value.
Devon Gazette, Feb. 13.
Coming from one so well able to judge, and whose authority cannot well be
questioned, his remarks will receive all the weight they deserve. The author's object
is to increase the quality of marketable poultry. He is anxious to point out that
poultry shows, as ordinarily conducted, have no connection with the breeding of
market poultry. . . . Unquestionably the work is one to be carefully read by all
who make poultry keeping a means of living. Every class of fowl is considered,
and the instructions given are the outcome of practical observation. There is
little doubt the book will be in popular demand.
Norwich Argus, Feb. 10.
Mr. Tegetmeier's book must be noted the most trustworthy that has ever been
published. He treats of the rearing for the table and market, speaks scornfully of
fancy fowls, and exposes the fallacies of poultry farming in trenchant language.
Illustrated with pictures of beautiful ancient and distorted modern birds,
among the former Bewick's true barn-door fowl, which is still without a rival.
A work that must serve as a text-book.
Essex County Chronicle, Feb. 19.
For those who keep poultry for profit the book will be of the greatest value.
Kilburn Times, Feb. 12.
The keeping of fowls in small runs is ably dealt with, and the precautions
necessary to ensure success are distinctly laid down.
( 4
The Kent Herald, March 3.
A remarkably practical and sensible book. The chapter on the " Fallacies
of Poultry Farming " is a most valuable one, and should deter anyone endowed with
an ordinary amount of sense from embarking on the enterprize.
The Publishers' Circular, Feb. 27.
This thoroughly practical little volume will be found of extreme interest to all
who are concerned in the rearing of fowls.
Bath Chronicle, Feb. 18.
The handiest and most complete, and, we will add, the most sensible, practical,
and authoritative treatise on the subject that has been pub ished.
Somerset County Gazette. Feb. 20.
Well illustrated, and written in a very lucid style.
Kendal Mercury. Feb. 19.
It has another excellence — that of cheapness — for what cannot fail to be the
authoritative handbook on economic poultry keeping may be had at the expense of
half a crown.
Hampstead Express, Feb. 20.
We consider it not only a desirable acquisition to the library of the British farmer,
but also of value as regards the ordinary poultry fancier, who possibly may be led to
see the error of his ways, and to endeavour to amend them.
Salisbury Journal.
Everyone who is interested in the practical side of poultry rearing ought to read
the book. The chapter on " fallacies of poultry farming " is especially important in
view of the seemingly conclusive proofs the author brings forward in support of his
statement that, "to produce poultry and eggs in large quantities for the market, and
as part of the food supply of the country, has never yet been made to pay when
carried on as a separate business, and liable to be charged with all the outgoings that
are necessarily incurred.-'
The Queen.
An interesting chapter is that devoted to the keeping of fowls in small runs by
suburban residents. These attempts are usually successful in the first instance, the
fowls when bought being young, healthy, and vigorous, but if kept on the ground it
becomes tainted, and the laying falls off very much. By adopting a more rational
m, Mr. Tegetmeier shows the mode in which, even in an area of somewhat
limited size, a few fowls can be kept for egg production with moderate success. This
is to be accomplished by a succession of new pullets ; by careful feeding, with the
elimination of all fat house scraps ; the abundance of green food, with a constant
renewal of fresh earth, and of means to be adopted whereby the fowls should not pick
their food from the tainted ground.
Advertisements.
BOULTON & PAUL'S SPECIALTIES
twe: original makers.
Xew Water No. 100. Improved Poultry Fencing. No. 64. Hatch-
Fountain. ^«— «^ . ing and Xest
The •■Morant" Babbit No. 1*0. Cheap Game Proof and Xo. 46. Poultry Shelter and
„ , Chicken Hurdles.
Hutch.
Xo. 66. House for
Ducks.
Xew Portable Coop Xo. 47. New Portable Fowl House,
with Bun combined.
Cockerel Eun or Bantam
House.
BEWARE OF INFERIOR IMITATIONS, OFFERED AT RIDICULOUSLY LOW PRICES.
Send for Illustrated Catalogue, including new designs for this season, with prices, free on application.
These blocks are registered and copyright.
BOULTON & PAUL, MANUFACTURERS, NORWICH.
Advertisements.
SPBATT'S
PATENT
I IN" SEALED IBAGi-S.
Price— Per cwtM 20s.; per half cwt., 10s. 6d. ; per quarter
cwt., 5s. 6d. ; per 141b., 2s. 9d. ; per 71b., Is. 6d. ; also in
3d. and 6d. sample packets.
GRANULATED PRAIRIE MEAT
" CRISSEL,"
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Price— Per cwt., 26s. ; per half cwt., 13s. 6d. ; per quarter
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1895
Catalogue of Books
RELATING TO
Angling, Boating, Cricket, farming, (Cartelling, hunting,
footing, Eemtis, ©ratal, lasting, &c>,
USEFUL FOR
COUNTRY GENTLEMEN,
TRAVELLERS, ETC.,
PUBLISHED BY
HORACE COX,
"THE FIELD" OFFICE, WINDSOR HOUSE,
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AGENTS.
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street ; George Robertson & Co., Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, and Brisbane.
Perth, W.A.: E. S. Wigg & Son.
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Thacker & Co. Limited; King, King, & Co.
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o&<c
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The illustrations have been intrusted to competent
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HORACE COX,
Publisher.
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A
Catalogue of Books
PUBLISHED BY
HORACE Cox.
SECOND EDITION, CREATLY ENLARCED.
Royal 4to., bevelled boards, gilt edges, price 155"., by post \^s. gd.
PHEASANTS:
THEIR
NATURAL HISTORY AND PRACTICAL MANAGEMENT.
By W. B. TEGETMEIER, F.Z.S.,
{Member of the British Ornithologists' Union.)
Author of "The Natural History of the Cranes," &c, &c.
Illustrated with numerous full-page engravings drawn from Life by
T. W. WOOD.
DAY'S BRITISH AND IRISH FISHES.
In 2 vols., imperial Svo., cloth, price 2 guineas, by post £2 $s. 6d.
THE FISHES OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
By FRANCIS DAY, F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c.
The Standard Work for Zoological Students, Fishculturists, Fishermen, and
the Public. The value of this grand work is much increased by nearly Two
Hundred Plates and Woodcuts.
Mr. Day has personally delineated every Species from Nature, and incorporated
many discoveries of recent times.
DAY'S SALMONID.ffi.
In 1 vol., imperial Svo., cloth, price 1 guinea, by post 2\s. 6d.
With 1 2 Coloured Plates and many Woodcuts.
British and Irish Salmonidae.
By FRANCIS DAY, C.I.E., F.L.S., and F.Z.S.
This work is an exhaustive treatise on the Salmonidae of the British Islands,
and will be interesting to the Fisherman, as well as a text-book to the Scientific
Ichthyologist. The reduced price will place it within the reach of all.
A Few Copies to be had, beautifully bound in Whole Calf, Full Gilt, price 35s.
fe*=*
WINDSOR HOUSE, BREAM'S BUILDINGS, LONDON, E.C. §J
A CATALOGUE OF BOOKS
EIGHTH EDITION IN THE PRESS.
Super-royal Svo., price 25s. net, or by post 26^.
A Manual
or
Yacht and Boat Sailing.
By DIXON KEMP,
Associate Institute Naval Architects (Member of the Council).
Author of "Yacht Designing" and "Yacht Architecture."
(The Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty have ordered this work to be supplied to
the Libraries of the ships of the Eoyal Navy.)
This Edition is largely re-written, and contains a great number of new subjects,
and the lines of many boats never before published, the total number of Plates
exceeding 100, besides more than 350 woodcuts in the text.
Third Edition in the press, Super-royal 8vo., price £2 25., by post £2 35.
YACHT ARCHITECTURE
By DIXON KEMP,
Associate of the Institution of Naval Architects and Member of the Council.
''PHIS WORK enters into the whole subject of the laws which govern
the resistance of bodies moving in water, and the influence a wave
form of body and wave lines have upon such resistance.
It also deals comprehensively with the subject of STEAM PROPUL-
SION as applied to yachts.
An easy SYSTEM for DESIGNING is provided, and every necessary
calculation is explained in detail.
The latter part of the work is devoted to YACHT BUILDING, and
engravings are given of every detail of construction and fitting, including
laving off, taking bevels. &c.
The List of Plates (exclusively of over thirty devoted to the elucidation
of the text, and nearlv two hundred woodcuts) exceeds fiftv, and comprise
the LINES of some' of the most CELEBRATED YACHTS AFLOAT
by the most successful builders and designers.
WINDSOR HOUSE, BREAM'S BUILDINGS, LONDON, E.C. ^
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PUBLISHED BY HORACE COX.
In demy 8vo., with Map and Illustrations, price lOs. 6d.
An AUSTRALIAN in CHINA:
BEING THE NARRATIVE OF A QUIET JOURNEY
ACROSS CHINA TO BRITISH BURMA.
By G. E. MORRISON, M.B.C.M. Edin., F.R.G.S.
In the Spring of last year, the author, who has travelled widely over the world,
and is a graduate of Edinburgh, made an interesting and remarkable journey through
the centre of China. He started from Shanghai, went up the Yangtse River as far as
the city of Chungking, and then, dressed as a Chinese, with a pigtail attached to the
inside of his hat, crossed over the provinces of Szechuen and Yunnan, the upper
Chinese Shan States, and Kachin Hills, to the frontier of Burma, at Nampoung.
Dr. Morrison travelled without an interpreter although he does not speak Chinese; he
had no European companion, and his only companions were Chinese coolies of the
humblest class, whom he engaged to carry his things from point to point of the
journey. He went unarmed and largely on foot. The book in which he recounts his
experiences, besides giving the latest news about far inland China, bears strong
testimony to the courtesy and hospitality of the Chinese, and to the uniform kindness
with which they treated a traveller who placed unreserved confidence in their good
faith. The book is well illustrated.
Price 5-s-., by post ^s. \d.
THE
YACHT RACING CALENDAR
AND REVIEW
FOR 1895.
By DIXON KEMP, J^.T.N.J^.,
Author of "Yacht and Boat Sailing," &c.
Crown 8vo., price js. 6d., by post js. iod., with Maps and Illustrations.
DOWN CHAIRKL.
With
by r. t. Mcmullen.
Introduction by DIXON KEMP.
CONTENTS.
The First Mishap.
The "Leo's" First Cruise, 1850.
The " Leo's " Last Cruise, 1857.
To Scilly in the "Orion," 1S6S.
To Scilly and Ireland in the " Sirius, 1861.
Round Great Britain in the "Sirius," 1861.
Voyage of the "Orion " to Bantry, 1S69.
Visit to the Bull Rock.
From the Thames to the Forth, &c, 1871.
From the Clyde to the Thames, 1871.
From the Thames to the West Coast of
Scotland, 1S75.
How I came to Sail alone in a 19-Ton Yacht
1S77.
From the Thames to the Wolf Rock with
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Experimental Cruise.
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A CATALOGUE OF BOOKS
8vo. pp. 463, with 32 illustrations, price 10s. 6d., by post lis.
ESSAYS
SPORT AND NATURAL HISTORY.
By J. E. HARTING.
CONTENTS.
Shooting — Hawking— Fishing — Training H anvks — Lark Mirrors — Plover Catching — Fishing with
£OIim(?rants— Decoys— The Irish Wolfhound— The Badger— Wild Turkeys— The Great Bustard— Seals—
\\ nd Swans, &c.
Thirty-eight Essavs : concluding with Practical Hints on Bird Preserving for the use of Travellers and
Collectors.
Price 5s. vet, by post 5s. ^d.
HORSES, ASSES, ZEBRAS, MULES,
MULE BREEDING.
BY
W. B. TEGETMEIER, F.Z.S., and C. L. SUTHERLAND.
This work, which is profusely illustrated, includes a detailed description of all the animals
of the horse tribe, and demonstration of the advantages of mules for agricultural and
draught purposes, as shown by their utilisation in Europe, America, and India.
"A curious, valuable, and interesting treatise, . . . the usefulness of which is enhanced by the
accurate drawings of the animals." — Sportsman.
"The book is not merely a popular treatise ; it is a work of considerable merit as a professional
exposition of a subject regarding which there is much to be learned in this country."' — Scotsman.
"The work should rind a place in every regimental library. " — Admiralty and Horse Guards' Gazette.
"A very interesting and readable work. Will be found'to contain all that anyone may wish to
know on the subject of mules and mule breeding. . . . A valuable addition to the literature of stock
breeding.''— live Sro'fc Journal.
" The volume wil be much sought after in America, India, and the Cape, and it is pretty certain
will be translated into other languages." — The Sporting L
" The authors have admirably succeeded."'— Bell's IVeetly Messenger.
" Profusely illustrated, and well worth perusal." — Oxford Journal.
" Xot at all unlikely to lead to a more general employment of mules instead of horses for
agricultural and general draught purposes." — Dail-.
Price 35. 6d. net.
LYEA PISCATOEIA.
Original Poems on the Nature, Habits, and Mode of Capture of all the
British Fresh- water Fishes, on Flies, Fishing, and Fishermen.
By COTSWOLD ISYS, M.A.,
Author of " A Handy Guide to Dry-fly Fishing," &c, and Hon. Member of the Fly-Fishers' Club.
Price 6d., paper covers, or is. in cloth.
SERVANTS & MASTERS.
The Law of Disputes, Eights, and Eemedies, in Plain Language.
By A BARRISTER.
Contents. — Introductory Chapter — Engagement of Servants — Character of Servant — Duty of
Servant — Duty of Employer — Employer's Liability for Servant's Negligence — Employer's Liability
for Orders given by Servant — Dismissal of Sen-ant — Right of Servant to Leave Service — Wages —
Commission Paid to Servants — Concluding Chapter.
A WINDSOR HOUSE, BREAM S BUILDINGS, LONDON,
**«K
PUBLISHED BY HORACE COX.
NEW AND CHEAPER EDITION OF THE CATTLE, SHEEP, AND PIGS OF GREAT BRITAIN.
With Illustrations from the original drawings by Harrison Weir,
in i vol., price 12s. 6d., by post ijs.
THE
CATTLE, SHEEP, AND PIGS
OF
GREAT BRITAIN:
.A. SERIES OF ARTICLES
ON THE VARIOUS
BREEDS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM, THEIR HISTORY,
MANAGEMENT, &c.
Edited by the late JOHN COLEMAN,
Editor of the Farm Department of '* The Field," and formerly Professor of Agriculture at the Royal
Agricultural College, Cirencester.
CONTENTS.
1.
11.
in,
IV
v.
VI,
VII.
VIII,
IX,
X.
XI.
I
II
III.
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
XI
XII
XIII
THE CATTLE OF
Introductory.
Breeding and General Management.
Principles of Feeding and Value of Different
Kinds of Food.
Buildings and the Management of Manure.
Dairy' Management, the Milk Trade, &c.
Shorthorns. By John Thornton.
The Hereford Breed of Cattle. By T. Duck-
ham.
Devon Breed of Cattle. By Lieut.-Col. J. T.
Davy.
The Longhorns. By Gilbert Murray.
The Sussex Breed of Cattle. By A. Heas-
man.
Norfolk and Suffolk Red-Polled Cattle. By
Thomas Fulcher.
GREAT BRITAIN.
XII. Galloway Cattle. By Gilbert Murray.
XIII. The Angus-Aberdeen Cattle.
XIV. The Ayrshire Breed of Cattle. By Gilbert
Murray.
XV. West Highland Cattle. By John Robertson.
XVI. The Glamorgan Breed of Cattle. By
Morgan Evans.
XVII. Pembrokeshire or Castlemartin Cattle. By
Morgan Evans.
XVIII. The Anglesea Cattle. By Morgan Evans.
XIX. The Kerry Breed of Cattle. By the late
R. O. Pringle.
XX. The Jersey Breed of Cattle. By John M.
Hall.
XXI. The Guernsey Breed of Cattle. By "A
Native."
THE SHEEP OF GREAT BRITAIN.
Introductory.
The Management of Ewes up to Lambing.
Preparations for and Attention during
Lambing.
Management from Birth to Weaning.
From Weaning to Market.
On Wool.
Leicester Sheep.
Border Leicesters. By John Usher.
Cotswold Sheep.
Long-Woolled Lincoln Sheep.
The Devon Long- Wools. By Joseph Darby.
Romney Marsh Sheep.
Southdown Sheep.
XIV. The Hampshire or West Country Down
Sheep. By E. P. Squarey.
XV. Shropshire Sheep.
XVI. Oxfordshire Down Sheep. By Messrs. A.
F. M. Druce and C. Hobbs.
XVII. The Roscommon Sheep. By he late R. O.
Pringle.
XVIII. Negrette Merino Sheep.
XIX. Exmoor Sheep.
XX. The Black-faced or Scotch Mountain Sheep.
XXI. Cheviot Sheep. By John Usher.
XXII. Dorset Horned Sheep. By Joseph Darby.
XXIII. Welsh Mountain Sheep. By Morgan Evans.
XXIV. The Radnor Sheep. By Morgan E*-ans.
XXV. Herdwick Sheep. By H. A. Spedding.
THE PIGS OF GREAT BRITAIN.
I.
II.
111.
IV.
Introductory.
The Berkshire Pig.
Black Suffolk Pigs.
Large White Breed of Pigs.
V. Small White Pigs.
VI. Middle Bred White Pigs.
VII. The Black Dorset Pig.
VIII. The Tamworth Pig.
WINDSOR HOUSE, BREAM'S BUILDINGS, LONDON, E.C.
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A CATALOGUE OF BOOKS
In crown 8vo., price $s., by post $s. ^d.
BOAT-RACING;
The ARTS of ROWING and TRAINING.
BY EDWIN DAMPIER BRICKWOOD.
(EX-AMATEUR CHAMPION OF THE THAMES.)
CONTENTS.
ROWING.
II.
Ill —
IV.-
V.-
VI.-
VII.-
VIII.-
IX.-
X.-
Introduction : Past and Present Condition of
Boatracing.
Racing Boats : Their History and Fittings.
The Sliding Seat: Its Invention, Adoption,
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Faults and Errors : What to avoid.
Steering : Coxswain and Non-coxswain.
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The Laws of Boatracing.
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XVII— Its Practice.
XVl 1 1. —Prohibitions, Ailments, &c.
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Index.
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W. B. LORD and T. BAINES.
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FIGURE-SKATING,
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Skating Clubs of Great Britain.
By MONTAGU S. MONIER-WILLIAMS, M.A., Oxon; WINTER RANDELL PIDGEON, M.A.,
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A SYSTEM of FICURE SKATING.
BY
T. MAXWELL WITHAM.
This is the Fourth Edition of a work which has been the text-book of all Figure Skaters
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THE THEORY AND PRACTICE
TARGET SHOOTING,
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By ARTHUR GLYNDWR FOULKES, M.A.,
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VALUATION OF PROPERTY
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Valuation of Copyholds.
Valuation for Mortgage.
Valuation for the Purpose of Parochial
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Valuation of Leaseholds and Reversions.
Valuations for Probate and Succession
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Chap.
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V. — Fences.
XL — Accounts.
VI. — Grasses suitable for
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XII. — Useful Rules of Arithmetic and
Plantations.
Mensuration.
VII.— The Home Farm.
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CATECHISM OF ESTATE MANAGEMENT.
Section I.— LETTING AND LEASES.
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THE
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MANURES :
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THE MANIFESTATION OF DISEASE
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TATTERSALL'S RULES ON BETTING,
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BLACK POWDERS AND NITRO COMPOUNDS.
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GARDEN PEAS AND THEIR CULTURE.
LIST OF HOUNDS, THEIR MASTERS, WHIPS, KENNELS. &c.
THE FEEDING OF THE YOUNG OF BIRDS.
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STALLIONS FOR BREEDING THOROUGH-BREDS, &c.
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TKXAX RANCH LIFE:
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A GIRL'S RIDE IN ICELAND.
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A YACHT RACING RECORD:
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THE COASTS OF DEVON
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LUNDY ISLAND:
THEIR TOWNS, VILLAGES, SCENERY, ANTIQUITIES, and LEGENDS.
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THE MARTYRDOM OF SOCIETY.
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start societies for the suppression of vice in high life; all familiar types in an age of sentiment and
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NEW NOVEL BY JAMES PAYN.
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A CATALOGUE OF BOOKS
INDEX TO BOOKS.
PAGE
A Day at Monte Carlo 15
A GiiTs Ride in Iceland 29
A Remedy lor Bad Times 15
A Sin of the Soul 17
A Step Aside 31
A Stumble on the Threshold 31
An Australian in China 5
Angler's Diary 16
Archer's Register 20
Art of Chess 11
At Century's Ebb 31
Betting Rules 27
Britannia's Bulwarks 22
British and Irish Fishes 3
Boat Racing 8
Bores and Loads for Sporting Guns... 8
Catechism of Estate Management ... 24
Cattle of Great Britain 7
Caught by a Cook 17
Coasts of Devon 29
Collie or Sheep Dog 12
Cottager' s Manual of Poultry Keeping 18
Coursing Calendar 15
Country House 10
Cricket Handbook -6
Down Channel 5
Estate Management 24
Essays on Sport and Natural History 6
Fairy Tales 16
Fast Day and Vegetarian Cookery ... 28
Figure Skating 23
Football Handbooks 26
Forest Trees 27
Fox Terrier 12
Gamekeeper's Shooting Book 10
Gipsy Tents, and How to Use Them 20
Golfing Annual 9
Greyhound Stud Book 15
Hare Hunting 19
Hints to Horsewomen 21
Hockey Rules 21
Horns and Hoofs 15
Horse Breeding Recollections 20
Hunting Countries 17
Improvement of Cricket Grounds ... 26
In Market Overt 16
Judging Book 25
Kennel Club Stud Book 27
Knights and Kings of Ches3 11
Lawn Tennis Handbook 26
Lawn Tennis Laws 21
Lawn Tennis Score Book 26
Lawn Tennis Regulations 21
Laws of Football 26
Laws of Golf 16
Letters from a Country House
Lyra Piscatoria
Lyrics
Man Hunting in the Desert
Management of Fisheries
Manures
Married to Order
Martyrdom of Society
Modern Dogs (3 Vols.) ...
Modern Sportsman's Gun and Rifle. ■
Modern Wildfowling
Mules and Mule Breeding
My Chiefs
North Country Ballads
Old English Embroidery
Pheasants
Pheasant Rearing
Pigeon Shooting Rules
Poems
Potatoes
Poultry
Practical Surveyor
Principles of Chess
Proof of Guns. Notes on
Queen Almanac
Rabbits
Rothamsted Experiments
Rowing Almanac
Rural Almanac
Science and Art of Training
Servants and Masters
Shifts and Expedients of Camp Life
Skating Cards
Songs Grave and Gay
Songs of the Cascades
Songs of the Pinewoods
Sporting Sketches
Sportsman's Vade-Mecum
Swimming Instructor
Syrian Monastery
System of Figure Skating
Tales in Verse
Target Shooting 23
Texan Ranch Life 28
The Cotillon 22
The Fairest of the Angels 30
The Wanderer in the Land of Cybi... 30
Twenty-six Tears' Reminiscences, &c. 19
Valuation of Property 24
When Fortune Frowns 17
Wilton. Q.C 17
Yacht and Boat Sailing 4
Yacht Architecture 4
Yacht Racing Calendar 5
Yacht Racing Record 29
PAGK
21
6
30
11
20
25
16
31
14
13
19
6
22
30
30
3
10
10
, 30
25
18
27
11
21
30
8
25
8
, 28
, 18
. 6
. 9
, 14
. 30
. 30
. 30
. 13
. 12
. 21
. 22
. 23
. 30
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